This plant, originally called Xing'an Rhododendron, has pink-purple flowers. However, it is a national second-level protected plant, and it may be illegal to purchase it through unusual channels. The dried rhododendrons on the market usually grow in Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia. They are called azaleas by the locals and are also widely sung as "Jindalai" in North Korean songs.
Dried flowers are very popular recently. When you buy them, they are just bare dry branches. After growing them in clean water for a few days, they will bloom into delicately colored flowers. It also has a long flowering period, making it suitable for people who don’t know how to grow flowers but like to enjoy beautiful flowers at home.
A video recently released on the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ scientific rumor-refuting public account reminds everyone to be careful when buying dried flowers and don’t buy the dried rhododendrons.
Dry branch azalea, many people are very familiar with this name. This is not the kind of dry branch usually sold in the flower market. Can you buy a plant that grows beautiful pink flowers quickly when you put it in water?
However, the name of this plant is not called Dry Branch Rhododendron. Its real name is "Xing'an Rhododendron", also called Jindalai flower, which is also called Rhododendron acuminata.
This plant, originally called Xing'an Rhododendron, has very beautiful pink-purple flowers. However, it is a national second-level protected plant, and it may be illegal to purchase it through unusual means.
The dried azaleas on the market are usually wild Xing'an azaleas, which mostly grow in Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia. They are called azaleas by the locals and are also the "Jindalai" widely sung in Korean songs.
The growth process of Xing'an Rhododendron is very slow. It can only grow 10 centimeters in a year. It usually takes five or six years from sowing to the first year of flowering. A Xing'an rhododendron with many branches and a height of 1.5 meters may have been growing for 20 or 30 years.
They begin to produce flower buds and leaf buds in the fall in preparation for flowering the next year. If you prune a lot of branches at this time, what you will actually cut are the branches with azalea buds.
These branches will indeed produce flowers when the temperature and humidity are suitable, but if these branches are separated from the main branch, they will not produce seeds. They are sold to customers and taken home to make flower arrangements. The usual end result is that the flowers fade and are thrown into the trash can.
In this way, the cuckoo, which could have grown for decades, consumed all its nutrients in just a few days, and then ended its life. This is a devastating disaster for the slow-growing cuckoo.
Today, Xing'an Rhododendron has been included in the list of national second-level protected plants. Although scientific researchers have done a lot of research on sowing, cutting, transplanting, etc., almost most of the dry branches on the market currently come from wild sources, and it is still impossible to meet market demand through artificial cultivation methods.
Summary
Many flower sellers have tried their best to repackage this flower and given it one nice name after another. For example, dry branches of azaleas, dead trees in spring, four-season plum blossoms, four-season plum blossoms, etc.
These names all sound nice and seem to have good meanings, but the plant itself does not have these good omens.
They just grow quietly in the Daxingan Mountains. The patches of jindarai flowers above are very beautiful when they bloom in spring, but now they have been harvested and become endangered plants. As consumers, what we can do is not to buy dried rhododendrons. It is everyone's responsibility to protect wild plants.