Are red apricots and almond blossoms the same kind of flower?

The apricot blossom has the characteristic of changing color,

When the buds are ready to bloom, all of them are bright red, with the stretching of the petals, the color from the thick gradually turn pale, to the shedding of the time to become the snow-white piece. "White is not really white, red is not as red, please red and white outside, do not look at the sky work." This is the Song Dynasty poet Yang Wanli's apricot five, his observation of the apricot blossom is very meticulous.

The flowers of the apricot tree

Apricot tree:

Latin name: ?Prunus?armeniaca

English name: ?Apricot,?Armenian?plum

Boundary: ? Plantae

Department: ? Angiospermae?Magnoliophyta

Order: ? Magnoliopsida

Order: ? Rosales

Family: ? Rosaceae

Subfamily: Armeniaca

Genus: ? Prunus

The apricot is an ancient flowering tree, hundreds of years B.C. came out of the "Guanzi" on the record, so at least in our country has been two or three thousand years of cultivation history. It can both pick fruit and flowers, in the production of fruit trees and city beautification are in an important position.

The apricot blossoms in full bloom, the colorful and delicate, the color of the flowers, rouge points, take up all the spring breeze. Resident family courtyard, such as the array of planting, red clouds in the spring, very spectacular and moving. Also suitable for single-plant enjoyment, such as mixed plants and willow, in the willow leaves spit green, reflecting each other, more distinctive color. More than ten years old apricot tree, posture strong, crown large branches hanging, if planted alone in the pool, in the water to form an ancient reflection, interesting.

The apricot blossom has the characteristic of changing color, when the buds are waiting to bloom, all red, as the petals stretch, the color from the thick gradually turn pale, to Xie down when it becomes a snow white piece. "White is not really white, red is not as red, please red and white outside, do not look at the work of heaven." This is the Song Dynasty poet Yang Wanli's apricot five, his observation of the apricot blossom is very meticulous.

Wang Anshi in the "North Slope apricot blossoms" poem, also the apricot blossoms falling this as flying snow, he admired the waterfront apricot blossoms, emotionally chanted: "A wave of spring water around the flower body, flower shadow enchanting each accounted for the spring. Even if the spring wind is blown into snow, absolutely better than the southern strand crushed into dust." Clear water around the apricot tree, flowers on the shore, flower shadow in the water, each showing their beauty, how beautiful is the water-side apricot flowers!

According to legend, China's ancient apricot blossoms and multicolor, "Xijing Miscellany" recounted: "East China Sea Lieutenant in Taiwan, offering apricot a plant, the flowers mixed five colors, six out of the cloud immortals eat." The book of "Description of differences" also talked about, Tiantai Mountain, there are five-color apricot flowers; six petals, called the immortal apricot, double kernel in the nucleus. In the country, has repeatedly asked the horticultural seniors, said they have heard of five-color apricot flowers, but have not seen. From a botanical point of view, the apricot belongs to the Rosaceae, should be five-petaled flowers. I am afraid that the six-petaled apricot flowers in the ancient books is a misrepresentation.

The apricot flower in China's tradition, is the twelve flowers of the God of February flowers, enough to show the status!

[edit]Morphological features

The apricot tree is a deciduous tree. Branchlets brown or reddish brown. Leaves ovoid or ovate-elliptic, margins with obtuse serration, petiole base with 1 - 6 glands. Flowers solitary, first leaves open, petals white or slightly reddish halo. Flower shape is similar to peach blossom and plum blossom, pure red when in bud, the color gradually fades after blooming, and becomes pure white when the flower falls. Flowering period March-May. The drupe is subovoid, round, oblong or oblate, similar to the plum fruit, with a mostly golden-yellow rind and a reddish halo or blotch on the sunny part. Fruit flesh dark yellow, sweet flavor? Juicy, with sutures and pilose, light yellow to yellowish red. Fruit ripening period June-July.

[edit]Main points of propagation

Sowing or grafting propagation. Grafting rootstocks can be selected hickory, plum, northeast apricot, etc., in the middle and end of July for the d-shaped budding. Sprouting can not be late, otherwise difficult to leave the skin, low survival rate. If the end of the year budding survival, can be to the next spring branching. You can also use tillering to propagate. Apricot tree life long, North China, Northwest China, common more than 100 years of large trees, production is still very high. Economic life is also very long, in 40 to 50 years. Apricot to the soil, terrain adaptability, mostly planted in the hillside terraces and hilly ground, in 800 ~ 1000 meters of high mountains can also grow normally. It can grow in loamy soil, clay soil, slightly acidic soil, alkaline soil and even in rock crevices. Apricot tree cold tolerance is strong, can withstand -30 ℃ or lower temperatures; high temperature resistance, such as Kashgar, Xinjiang and other places, the highest summer temperature of 43.4 ℃ can still be normal growth results and good quality. Apricot tree does not tolerate waterlogging, the ground waterlogged 3 days will be rotten roots tree death. In the planted apricot, peach, plum and cherry and other nuclear fruit fruit trees in the place, not to build apricot orchards, or easy to re-plant disease, the tree is stunted, poor quality, the tree is dead, resulting in the failure of the garden. Most varieties of apricot autoflowering sterile or autoflowering fruiting rate is very low, so it must be configured to pollinate the tree in order to obtain a high and stable yield. Under normal circumstances, the ratio of the main plant species and pollinated varieties of 3 to 4:1. apricot tree seedlings are mainly used to propagate grafting, commonly used rootstock have mountain apricot, that is, the Siberian apricot, widely distributed in North China, Northeast and Northwest China. Cold-resistant, drought-resistant, grafting affinity with apricot, can improve the drought resistance of seedlings, cold resistance, and dwarfing effect. With ordinary apricot as rootstock, because the tree is tall, thick branches and trunks, the beginning of the fruit and into the fruiting period a little late, but long life. Some areas use hickory, plum, plum, elm, etc. as rootstocks, most of which show weak affinity and low survival rate. Planting density should be determined according to varieties, terrain, management level, etc., generally fresh edible apricot 2 to 3 meters × 4 to 5 meters spacing is more appropriate, mu planted 40 to 80 plants. Almonds for benevolence 2 to 3 meters × 3 to 4 meters spacing is appropriate, mu planted 55 to 110 plants. Processed apricots can take the density between the two.

Main pests and diseases

The main pests and diseases of the apricot tree are apricot scab, black spot disease, rheumatism, apricot weevil, aphids, red spiders, ball firm medium, boat-shaped caterpillar, and so on, and the damage of the dark scab, black spot disease, ball firm medium is more serious, and should take the following comprehensive measures to prevent and control.

I. From winter to germination, remove dead branches and leaves in the orchard, cut out diseased branches, centralized destruction, scrape off the old bark, remove the source of overwintering pests and diseases, and reduce the base of pests and diseases.

Second, before flowering, use 5 boeme degrees of thiosulfate to spray the branches and trunks, to prevent and control apricot scab, black spot disease, ball firm medium and other overwintering insect eggs.

Third, from mid-March to early April is the apricot weevil out of the ground on the tree hazardous period, the use of its pseudo-death, shaking the tree early in the morning, manually kill, remove the insect fruit, and timely spraying of 20% speed kill 2000 times liquid and 50% carbendazim 600 times liquid mixture. Prevention and control of apricot weevil and apricot scab, black spot disease, perforation disease, can also choose other insecticides and fungicides mixed.

Fourth, in mid-April, spray 40% chrysanthemum horse emulsion 1000 times and 200 times the solution of the speed of the spirit, can prevent and control apricot scab, black spot disease, perforation and peach aphid.

V. In mid-June, use 2000-3000 times solution of methomyl, 1000 times solution of speed kill and 1500 times solution of polymyxin to prevent and control red spider, mesquite, black spot disease, perforation disease and other pests and diseases, and artificially capture and kill the adult red-necked tennecoats.

Sixth, in mid- to late July, manually capture and kill the boat-shaped caterpillars that are not dispersed in groups, or spray 2000 times the solution of speed killin for prevention and control in a timely manner.

VII, before germination, that is, bud expansion period spray, available imidacloprid 4000-5000 times liquid. After germination, use imidacloprid 4000-5000 times liquid and add p-cypermethrin 2000-3000 times liquid can kill aphids, can also be treated almond bee. After fruiting, aphids can be controlled with 1500 times of Aphidofen.

[edit]Origin and distribution

It may be native to China, central Asia, Japan and Korea, but it is also found in Armenia and the territory of the ancient Persian state; it is most widely distributed throughout northwestern, northern and northeastern China. China in 3000 BC began to cultivate a large number of Western countries, mainly through the Silk Road and the transmission of the past, hardy, light-loving, drought-resistant, do not tolerate flooding.

Apricot in China has a wide distribution, in addition to the southern coast and Taiwan Province, most provinces and districts have, including Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Anhui and other places more, and its centralized cultivation areas for the south of Northeast China, North China, Northwest China, such as the Yellow River Basin provinces.

In recent years, in order to develop apricot commodity bases, a number of new varieties of bases have been built in some of the old production areas, such as Hebei Julu, Guangzong's string of red apricot bases, Shandong Zhaoyuan's red gold hazelnut apricot commodity bases, Zhangjiakou's large flat apricot commodity bases, Beijing's crystal apricot bases, Shandong Laoshan's Master Guan's face apricot bases, Lixing's red lotus buds bases, Henan Mianchi's Yangshao red apricot bases, Shaanxi's Huaxian's large apricot bases, Gansu's Dunhuang Li Guang apricot base and Xinjiang Yingjisha apricot base. In the construction of these bases, the selection of famous varieties, scientific cultivation management technology, so that China's apricot production level jumped to a new level.