Pu fan in grandma's memory-- Pukui

About summer.

In the hot summer day in our memory, we listened to the cicadas singing and fell asleep. Grandma's fan shook gently to drive away the heat wave. And now the popularity of air conditioning, pu fan has also become a cool memory. The pu fan in this memory is from Pukui.

Pu Kui Livistona chinensis

Palmaceae, evergreen tree, single leaf combination such as a fan-shaped, so also called fan sunflower, while the early "Chinese animal medicine plant in Guangxi, China" is recorded as the fan tree, "Lu Chuan Materia Medica" is recorded as the sunflower tree. In ancient times, pu fans could also be used to increase firepower when it came to cooking medicine. At the same time, it is also a well-known thing held by the living Buddha Ji Gong.

So why can the leaves of sunflower be made into fans?

First of all, because the leaves of sunflower are larger and neatly arranged, of course, such leaf arrangement is not random, with petiole as the center, showing a ray-like arrangement, this arrangement can ensure that all leaves are exposed to equal sunlight, and can also ensure that the air is fully ventilated, so that the rate of optical cooperation is the highest. Secondly, the cracks between the leaves of a single sunflower are also relatively shallow, so it is suitable to be arranged into a round pu fan. If it is winter, the water content of the leaves of sunflower is low, so it is easier for the leaves to make a fan.

When it comes to sunflower, we should mention palms, both of which belong to the palm family, because they look alike and are often difficult to distinguish. We share a few tips to help quickly distinguish between the two kinds of trees.

Palm

First of all, look at the size. Palm trees are shorter, with a maximum height of only about ten meters. The 20-meter-high sunflower is very common, while the sunflower has larger leaves, thicker stems and faster growth.

Secondly, look at the appearance. There are only many continuous small obtuse thorns on the palm petiole, while there are separate sharp barbs on the sunflower petiole. Palm leaves are not only small, but also have obvious cracks, so they are not suitable for making fans. In the natural state, the end of the palm leaf is straight and hard, while the sunflower leaf is larger, the leaf crack is shallower, and the leaf tip is naturally drooping. This is the easiest way to distinguish. The fiber on the stem of sunflower is less than that of palm, and it is easy to fall off and expose the trunk; the palm is thick and dense, which is not easy to fall off, which is the adaptation of palm trees to the cold environment and is also used to make mattresses.

Then it depends on the distribution. Pukui has poor cold tolerance and is only distributed in the south of China. The palm can withstand the low temperature of-10 °C, reaching to the south of Shaanxi, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in the north, South China and Vietnam in the south.

Finally, it depends on gender. Palm trees are dioecious, while sunflower is monoecious.

Now do you know what the fan is made of?