Recently, a succession of typhoons have passed through the magic capital, and the rain has been pouring non-stop, which has brought great inconvenience to many people's travel......
A leaking window
In early autumn in Shanghai, although you are drenched by wind + rain, there is a type of flower that is very individual, picking the typhoon season or before and after the wind and rain, and now it is blooming just right.
It is the "flower of the other side" and the "hurricane lily"
Lycoris radiata is probably the most memorable flower in autumn, it belongs to the Amaryllidaceae family, is a native plant in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions of the mainland, and likes to live in a more shady environment.
When the heat subsides in early autumn, the green flowers of Lycoris like garlic sprouts emerge from the bare ground, and a cluster of bright red flowers that look like spiders dancing their claws are beautiful.
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Aliases such as "Higan Flower" and "Manshu Sahua" (according to legend, both names are produced in Japan, the former comes from the fact that its flowering period is around the autumn equinox, and the latter is related to Buddhism, taking its bright red flower characteristics) add a bit of mystery to it.
However, what is not well known is that Lycoris often blooms after storms at the turn of summer and autumn, and it is also known as "Hurricane Lily" because it is often used during typhoons or hurricanes.
Lycoris has onion-like bulbs, and after the flowering period ends each autumn, they grow leek-like dark green leaves with a pale band in the center of the leaves, and spend the winter in this unremarkable state.
石蒜的鳞茎（俗称种球）图源：Pacific Bulb Society
In early summer, the leaves of Lycoris wither and the aerial parts go into a dormant phase. In early autumn, especially after being irrigated by rain, Lycoris will seize the opportunity to pull out long flowers and bloom brilliantly. When the flowers wither, the leaves grow out of the bulb and complete a growth cycle.
Leaf clumps of Lycoris in winter
The flowers and leaves are "born and wrong", and the party is "the flower on the other side"
There are more than 30 species of Lycoris genus, mainly distributed in the warm regions of East Asia, and more than 20 species in the mainland, and their flower types, flower colors and flowering periods are very diverse, but they all have the habit of flowering first and then growing leaves, and flowers and leaves do not coexist.
The reason why Lycoris has this seemingly strange growth habit may be due to the high temperature and dry climate conditions in the native summer when the species was formed.
L. Lycoris smirked (L. Lycoris). aurea), a few flower pestles on bare ground. The stock copyright picture, reprinting and using may cause copyright disputes
The flower types of the genus Lycoris can be roughly divided into two categories, one is the tepal is wider, the filaments are shorter or nearly equal in length than the tepal, similar to lilies, such as the white or pale pink long-tube Lycoris (L. longituba), purplish red with some blue seaside lycoris (L. longituba), purple-red with some blue seaside lycoris (L. longituba). insularis), the light pink deer onion (L. insularis). squamigera) and so on.
The deer onion resembling a lily is also known as the summer narcissus
The other type of petals is narrow and recoiled, and most of the filaments are long, somewhat spider-like. In addition to the red Lycoris, there is also the golden yellow Chinese Lycoris (L. chinensis). chinensis) and L. chinensis. aurea）。 In addition to native species, there are countless naturally crossed and artificially bred species.
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In Shanghai, the best place to see Lycoris is the Shanghai Botanical Garden, where a large number of different species of Lycoris are planted under its metasequoia forest, and from July to October, all kinds of Lycoris bloom one after another, like a fairyland, many varieties are rare to see. In addition, there are many varieties of lycoris under the bamboo forest in the Chenshan Botanical Garden in Shanghai.
After the wind and rain, the people are small and fresh
If the "solitary" Lycoris feels a little cold, then another plant that is in full bloom and belongs to the Lycoris family seems to be much more "close to the people", which is the genus Zephyranthes, which is very common in the green belt.
Allium orchid is a kind of Lycoris family distributed in the Americas, with a wide variety of species and horticultural varieties, and is an important bulbous flower, which is mainly introduced and cultivated in China by white allium orchid (Zephyranthes candida) and pink leek (Zephyranthes carinata). These plants are often called "rain orchids" in horticulture because they often bloom in large numbers after heavy downpours.
The rain orchid variety "Fat Lili" (Z. 'Lily Pies') blooms in full bloom after heavy rains
This may be an adaptation mechanism of the orchid to the environment of origin. For example, the native environment of allium orchids is humid and rainy all year round, but there is a brief drought in summer, so allium orchids may use the heavy rain after drought as a signal that the flowering period is coming.
Native to the humid regions of southern South America, Allium orchid is a proper outsider, but due to its early introduction and easy propagation by dividing and seeding, it has long been a commonplace green plant. As the name suggests, the allium plant looks like a pinch of shallots, but on closer inspection, it is not difficult to tell the difference: the leaves of the allium orchid are solid, fleshy, dark green and shiny, while the leaves of shallots are hollow and powdery.
In early autumn, the allium orchid pulls out the hollow flower stems and blooms a large number of white star-shaped flowers, and when planted in patches, the flowering allium orchid is as white as snow. This is because they can reproduce easily by producing large numbers of seeds through fusion-free reproduction (seeds that are exactly the same as the mother's genetics without pollination and fertilization).
However, according to the author's observations, allium orchids are not actually sensitive to flowering after rain, and as long as autumn comes, even if there is no heavy rain, they can bloom in large numbers and steadily.
A sea of onion orchids
In contrast, leeks and some horticultural varieties are much more sensitive and do not usually bloom much, but after heavy rains they bloom in large quantities very intensively, which is very interesting.
According to research, when a typhoon or rainstorm arrives, the weather is hot, the atmospheric pressure will become lower, the temperature will rise, the moisture content in the air will increase, and the hormones in the bulb of the heat-sensitive plant leek, which perceives the "flowering signal", will promote the rapid formation of flower buds and a large number of flowers.
Leeks after the rain. The stock copyright picture, reprinting and using may cause copyright disputes
Finally, it is worth mentioning that the Lycoris family, where Lycoris is located, is famous for its abundance of seasoned vegetables such as onions, garlic, leeks and other seasoning vegetables (Allium), as well as common bulbous and perennial flowers such as narcissus, Clivia, and Ipheion.
In addition to allium, the bulbs of Lycoris plants generally contain a variety of alkaloids, which have certain medicinal value, but as the saying goes, "it is a medicine with three poisons", if you do not follow the doctor's instructions, please do not eat it yourself!
Source: Popular Science China