Why did gardenia blossom in the first place?

Still remember that year, teacher he Jing a song spread all over the campus, so that gardenia supported how many young girls in the mood of the graduation season, until today, that familiar melody can evoke the young memories of many people.

Forever Young

Gardenia blossoms movie soundtrack

He Jie

00:00/04:11

Fourteen years have passed in the twinkling of an eye, and the young girls who graduated from "gardenia blooming" have become uncles and aunts. And you may not know, in the Song Dynasty, gardenia has an indescribable meaning.

Evoke youthful memories by the simple and elegant gardenia? The age is exposed. Picture: Lazaregagnidze / wiki commons

Cultivation History of Gardenia jasminoides

Gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides) is a shrub plant of the genus Gardenia of Rubiaceae. This genus is mainly distributed in the tropics. The word "Garden" of the genus name is not because it is suitable for growing in the garden, but is used in honor of the Scottish scientist Alexander Garden;. The addition word comes from the genus Jasminum where the jasmine is located. Gardenia was first introduced to Europe in the 18th century. People thought the child was as white and fragrant as Suxin flower, so they gave it this name, which is also called Cape Jasmine in English.

Single-petal gardenia variety 'Daisy'. Picture: platycryptus / flickr

China is one of the places of origin of Gardenia jasminoides. Gardenia flowers are very common in the mountains of South China. At this time of year, as long as you find a decent mountain, you can see gardenia with a rich fragrance. The hills of South China in early summer are not as colorful as the southwest plateau, and the big white flowers of Gardenia are particularly eye-catching in a lush patch.

A clump of gardenia in the mountains. Picture: Alpsdake / wiki commons

Such conspicuous flowers and aroma will not be missed. Gardenia has been used as bonsai and flower arrangement in the Southern Song Dynasty. Many painters of the five dynasties, Song and Yuan dynasties (such as Xu Xi, Qian Xuan, etc.) have painted gardenia, and there are also shots of gray magpies standing on the branches of gardenia in Song Huizong's flower-and-bird picture.

Today, the white toad, a double variety, is more common than the original single gardenia in the mountains.

Today's important cultivated variety, double white toad gardenia. Picture: Kai Yan, Joseph Wong / flickr

The white toad in the courtyard sometimes looks like a double Bermuda, but it is not difficult to distinguish between the two: White toad gardenia, as a plant of Rubiaceae, has a very characteristic stipule, which is not found in Apocynaceae.

Gardenia jasminoides has stipules growing in the petiole. Picture: Esme / esmelivingcolour.com

However, gardenia first made its debut not with such lovely white flowers, but with its fruit. Gardenia, focus on "son".

A gardener who dyes cloth and food.

The berries of Gardenia jasminoides are oval and orange when ripe, with 8 slender calyx at the top, which extends all the way down and forms a protruding longitudinal edge on the fruit.

The fruit of gardenia. Picture: Alpsdake / wiki commons

Li Shizhen wrote in the Compendium of Materia Medica: "zh [wine], wine utensils, like it, hence the name, today's custom plus wood for gardenia," thinking that gardenia fruit is like an ancient wine cup, so it is named after it. To tell you the truth, this view is far-fetched. The shape of the jasmine is a little different from that of the gardenia fruit. If we have to make an analogy with the wine vessel, I think the inverted bottle is more suitable, and the long feet of the bottle bear some resemblance to the persistent calyx.

Gardenia side, pay attention to the calyx. Picture: Alpsdake / wiki commons

So, why is the gardenia fruit eye-catching? Because it has been used as a dye since ancient times.

In the Han Guanyi in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there are records of "dyeing the garden for dyeing imperial clothes", and in the biographies of Shiji goods and colonies, there are also records of "thousands of acres of Jiuxi, a thousand beds of ginger leek: all of them are with thousands of households, and so on." "Qian" is the mizzah that can provide red dye, which has been mentioned in the species calendar in February this year, while gardenia can provide yellow, so gardenia also has the nickname "Huangzhi".

Dyeing effect of Gardenia jasminoides fruit. Picture: the stone of Sisyphus

The yellow of gardenia comes from the gardenia yellow pigment in the fruit, also known as saffron. Yes, if you have seen the saffron described in the species calendar, you will know that this pigment is also found in the style of the saffron genus of Iridaceae.

The dried style of saffron contains saffron as well as gardenia fruit. Picture: Rainer Zenz / wiki commons

Crocin is a kind of carotenoid that is soluble in water. As long as the gardenia fruit is broken and boiled in water, an orange dye can be obtained. After adding mordant such as alum or sodium carbonate, soak the cloth or paper to dye the latter bright yellow. You can buy gardenia fruit from a traditional Chinese medicine store, and you can easily DIY this process if you are interested.

Gardenia dried fruit, you can buy some to try to dye their own cloth ah. Picture: Maangchi

In addition to dyeing clothes, gardenia yellow can also be used as food pigment. In Chaoshan area of Guangdong Province, there is a kind of snacks made of glutinous rice and eaten on the Dragon Boat Festival, called gardenia dumplings or gardenia dumplings. Gardenia dye and edible alkali need to be added to dye glutinous rice yellow (in fact, only alkaline water can also cook glutinous rice yellow).

Gardenia dumplings, cut into thin slices and dipped in sugar. Picture: small five Kitchen

Gardenia written in the poem may not be pure.

In the Song Dynasty, people imitated the shape and color of gardenia fruit to make a kind of gardenia lamp, which was placed at the door of the hotel. Many of them can be found in the picture of Riverside during the Qingming Festival. Dong Simi, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, described: "the wind and frost came into reality on the evening of autumn, and paid to Hua Deng to make a similar biography." in the same period, "Menglianglu Restaurant" also described in detail the scene of placing gardenia lamps in front of the hotel, which showed that it was very popular at that time.

"Qingming Festival along the River" part of the picture, the red circle on the picture is the gardenia lamp.

Let's enlarge the picture a little more. Is it very similar to the shape of gardenia fruit?

Slightly awkwardly, the red gardenia lamp may be reminiscent of the "red light district" of modern vocabulary, and it did have this intention at that time. However, according to records, only when the gardenia lamp at the entrance of the hotel is covered with Ruo cover all the year round, can it have that kind of meaning that everyone knows. The "Capital Jisheng" of the Southern Song Dynasty wrote: "the nunnery Hotel, which says that there are prostitutes, can be happy, while hiding in bed in the wine pavilion. On the red gardenia lamp at the head of the door, if it is not sunny or rainy, it must be covered with Ruo as a sign. In other big hotels, prostitutes only sit with them.

Lin Yong, a native of the Southern Song Dynasty, also wrote, "looking for Secretary du, Zhi Deng several bamboo west buildings", implying that du Mu often haunts the Fengyue place. However, this poem is not elegant enough. after all, there was no gardenia lamp of such significance in the Tang Dynasty.

Gardenia: "We are obviously very simple." Picture: omcseeds.com

Today, Gardenia does not have this meaning, and its origin with Chinese culture is still going on. The faint fragrance of flowers places people's subtle youth and pure love. Youth may never return, gardenia, but also will be in full bloom in every mountain in the south.

This is the 155th article in the fourth year of the species calendar, from @ Hanxiao, author of the species calendar.

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