Chimonanthus praecox, alias wax wood and yellow plum. It belongs to Chimonanthaceae, a deciduous shrub, with a height of 4-5 meters. Often clustered. Leaves opposite, nearly leathery, elliptic-ovate to ovate-lanceolate, apex acuminate, entire, and buds with many imbricate scales. The leaves bloom first at the end of winter, and the flowers are solitary in the axils of annual branches, with short stalks and cup-shaped receptacle. Many tepals are arranged in a spiral shape, yellow and waxy, with a flowering period of 12- 1 month and a strong fragrance. Achenes are abundant and mature in June-July.
Originated in Central China, it is cultivated all over the country. Sex likes sunshine, can withstand shade, cold, drought and avoid waterlogging.
Chimonanthus praecox blooms proudly in frosty and snowy days, with yellow flowers like wax and fragrant smell. It is the main ornamental flower in winter.
The flower of Chimonanthus praecox is a valuable medicinal material after processing, which has the effect of detoxifying and promoting fluid production.
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Plum blossom, also known as Chun Mei and Hongmei. Prunus of Rosaceae is a deciduous tree with few shrubs. The height can reach 5-6 meters. Crown spread, bark light gray or light green. Branchlets are slender, pointed, green and glabrous. Leaves broadly ovate or ovate, with edges.
Serrulate, apex acuminate or caudal, base broadly cuneate, pubescent when young or along veins, petiole short and glandular. Pedicels are short, 1-2 peanuts are on 1 and 2-year-old branches, and calyx tube is bell-shaped, red, dark red and green. Single or double flowers, white, red or reddish, fragrant, mostly in early spring1-February. Drupe is nearly spherical, yellow or green, and matures in May-June.
Plum blossoms are native to China and mainly cultivated in the Yangtze River valley and southwest China. I like a warm and slightly humid climate.
It should be grown in a sunny, ventilated and cool place, afraid of waterlogging and able to withstand drought.
Plum blossom is a world-famous ornamental flower, especially its charm. Whenever it is sparse in late winter and early spring, its fragrance will overflow far away. In China, it is called "Three Friends of Old Cold" together with Matsuzaka.
Plum blossoms and plums can be used as medicine, and plum blossoms can be taken instead of tea. Fruit element is known as "healthy food" and can be processed into various dried fruits, and the list is endless.
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How to distinguish wintersweet from plum blossom
Chimonanthus belongs to Chimonanthus of Chimonanthaceae and Prunus of Rosaceae, both of which belong to different families and different genera. Because both of them have the word "plum", they both bloom first and then grow leaves, and both of them are fragrant and bloom in winter and spring, so many people often mistake them for the same species.
In fact, the difference between the two is very big, mainly in the following four points:
1, different colors: Chimonanthus praecox is mainly sallow, while plum blossom has white, pink, deep river, purple and other colors.
2. Different flowering periods: Generally, Chimonanthus praecox blooms in the twelfth lunar month, about two months earlier than Plum Blossom.
3. The crown is different: Chimonanthus praecox is a shrub with clustered branches, upright branches and a well-developed root neck, while Prunus mume is a tree with a trunk, which is as high as 10 m and often has thorns. In addition to straight branches, there are vertical branches with irregular crown and round head.
4. Different leaves: Chimonanthus praecox leaves are opposite, nearly leathery, rectangular, entire, with rough upper surface and green, smooth and gray back; However, the leaves of plum blossom alternate, Ye Guang is ovoid to ovoid, 4- 10 cm long, the tip or tail tip gradually tapers, the edge has thin and sharp serrations, the base is wide wedge-shaped or nearly round, both sides are pubescent, and then it falls off more. The growing new leaves only have hairs on the veins on the back of the leaves, but most of them are in the axils of the leaves.
Plum blossom and wintersweet are two different plant families. There are many kinds of plum blossoms, among which Jiangnan produces the best. Japanese cherry blossom is a close relative of plum blossom, red plum is a kind of plum blossom, Sichuan red plum is almost tasteless, and so is Bai Mei, with a light green plum blossom (green calyx? ) It's very expensive. Chimonanthus praecox is just another plant. Plum blossoms bloom about a month later than wintersweet. Mao Zedong's poem "Plum Blossoms Filled with Snow" is inappropriate. In fact, the snow that plum blossoms receive is mostly the last snow in winter. Plum blossoms and wintersweet are actually very delicate. They don't like warmth or heat, but they also like humidity. The famous meteorologist Zhu Kezhen studied plum blossom (Chimonanthus praecox? ), it is concluded that the temperature in ancient China became cold from the Tang Dynasty. Now plum and wintersweet only bloom in the Yangtze River valley.
Chimonanthus praecox and Prunus mume grow on the branches in the dead of winter, but the fragrance of Chimonanthus praecox is much stronger. Therefore, Lin Hejing's "wife of Chimonanthus praecox"-"faint fragrance and thin shadow" should refer to Prunus praecox, not Chimonanthus praecox, as if all the plants on the lonely mountain in Hangzhou are plum blossoms.