The carnation of Qumai tassel petals

In summer and autumn, Qumai (Q ú m à I) can be seen in the high mountains of many provinces.

[Qumai Dianthus superbus] Caryophyllaceae Caryophyllaceae > > Caryophyllum

Yumai is widely distributed, such as on several high mountains in Zhejiang, such as Dongbai Mountain and Baishan Zu, as well as on the meadows of the peaks around Beijing. It can also be seen in the northwest, north China and southwest.

Generally speaking, Liangmai likes to grow on subalpine meadows at an altitude of thousands of meters. Therefore, if you want to see wild Qumai, it is often inevitable to travel across mountains and rivers. However, with the development of China's garden and flower industry, Qumai gradually walked down the mountain and appeared in greening and flower shops.

Wheat bottle insert, extracted from "Jia Chen post and watercolor painting post." Three villages Zhuqing "

Qu Mai in Horticulture

Qumai is a plant of Caryophyllaceae and Caryophyllum. Compared with ordinary carnation flowers, the flower diameter of Qumai is more than twice as large, and its petals are fimbriate. He has five petals, the petals are pink and purple, very long, can have four or five centimeters. The base of the petals is white; the middle part of the pinkish purple begins to deepen, with short villi; the end of the petals splits into fine tassels, and the whole petal looks like a peacock's magnificent screen.

The newly opened wheat flowers are the most beautiful, with full petals and slightly curved tassels, and the whole flower looks very energetic, like a bright woman. But the wheat flowers are too easy to "grow old". After the flowers are withered, the tassel hangs in disarray. Or be tricked by bugs and Rain Water and become dilapidated.

In addition to petals, the calyx of Qumai is also different from that of carnation. The calyx of the common carnation is leaf-like and spreading, while the bracts of Triticum aestivum are not spreading and like scales. If we can pluck away the dense weeds in the meadow, we can find that Qumai is still a tall beauty, the whole plant can be more than half a meter tall and the leaves are slender.

With the exception of XX and long calyx, all plants of the genus Dianthus are called Carnation. So how did the name "Yumai" come from?

According to the textual research of "Reading Notes of Plant names", plant names often use other characters, and this may be the case with "Yi". The author speculates that qu Mai is the same, so qu Mai is Yumai. [1] "qu" has the meaning of "brewable wine". Searching for Qumai wine, there are some "health care" medicinal wines in China. On the other hand, some Japanese brewers use wheat flowers to make "flower yeast", which is used in the brewing of Japanese sake.

Another possibility is that "Ji Mai" means that the seedlings born at the beginning of spring are like wheat seedlings.

[1] Xia Weiying. Notes on the interpretation of plant names. Agricultural Press, 1990. 194 pages

Author: Jiang SB.

Photo: Jiang SB.

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