Introduction: Winter jasmine. Alias: Spring Festival, Spring Festival, Golden Belt, Deciduous Shrub. Plant height is 30- 100 cm. Branchlets are slender, erect or arched, drooping, showing a chaotic pattern. 3 leaflets are opposite to compound leaves, and the leaves are ovoid to oblong. Flowers were born on the branches born last year, which opened before the leaves, with a faint fragrance, golden color and a blush outside. The flowering period is from February to April. Named for its earliest opening among flowers, flowers will usher in the spring of flowers.

Winter jasmine, plum blossom, narcissus and camellia are called "four friends in the snow" and are one of the common flowers in China. Winter jasmine is not only dignified and beautiful in color, but also extraordinary in temperament. It has the characteristics of not being afraid of cold, not adapting to local conditions and strong adaptability, and has always been loved by people. The history of winter jasmine cultivation is over 1000 years. It is recorded in Bai Juyi's poem "Calling Liu Langzhong for the Spring Festival" in the Tang Dynasty, Han Qi's "Spring in the East Hall of Zhongshu" in the Song Dynasty and Zhou Wenhua's "History of Runan Garden" in the Ming Dynasty. Winter jasmine is now the city flower of Hebi City, Henan Province.

Second: morphological characteristics

Winter jasmine is a deciduous shrub, erect or prostrate, 0.3-5 meters high and drooping branches. Branches are slightly twisted, smooth and hairless, branchlets are quadrangular, and the edges have narrow wings.

winter jasmine

The leaves are opposite, three leaves are compound, and there is a single leaf at the base of the branchlet; Leaf rachis with narrow wings, petiole 3- 10 mm long, glabrous; Leaves and leaflets are slightly hairy on both sides when they are young, but only the leaves have eyelashes when they are old; Leaflets are ovate, oblong or elliptic, narrowly elliptic, sparsely obovate, with sharp or blunt apex, short apex, wedge-shaped base, leaf margin rolled back, midvein slightly concave at the top, convex at the bottom and inconspicuous lateral veins; The terminal leaflet is large, with a length of 1-3 cm and a width of 0.3- 1. 1 cm, sessile or the base extends into a short stalk, and the lateral leaflet is 0.6-2.3 cm, 0.2-1cm, sessile; The single leaf is ovoid or ovoid, sometimes suborbicular, 0.7-2.2 cm long and 0.4- 1.3 cm wide.

Flowers solitary in leaf axils of last year's branchlets, sparsely at the top of branchlets; Bracts leaflike, lanceolate, ovate or elliptic, 3-8 mm long and 1.5-4 mm wide; Pedicel 2-3 mm long; Calyx green, 5-6 lobes, narrowly lanceolate, 4-6 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, with a sharp tip; Corolla yellow, 2-2.5 cm in diameter.

Three: growing habits

Like light, slightly tolerant of shade, slightly cold, afraid of waterlogging, can overwinter in North China and Yanling in the open air, requiring warm and humid climate, loose and fertile sandy soil with good drainage, which grows vigorously in acidic soil and poorly in alkaline soil. The roots germinate vigorously. The landing part of the branch takes root easily.

Four: geographical distribution

China, Gansu, Shaanxi, Sichuan, northwestern Yunnan and southeastern Tibet.