Expert: Kissed by an angel, the world's first lotus that can "change its face" is born in Shanghai as a plant | Variety | Shanghai

As the annual lotus viewing season approaches, there is good news from the plant research community in Shanghai.

Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden announced today that this year, 7 new lotus varieties cultivated by the "Innovative Utilization of Ornamental Plant Resources and Germplasm Research Group" of Chenshan Botanical Garden have been included in the list of plant new varieties published by the Plant New Variety Protection Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and have obtained the national plant new variety protection rights.

According to the Seed Law, new plant varieties refer to plant varieties that have been artificially selected or discovered as wild plants in the National Plant Variety Protection List, improved to possess novelty, specificity, consistency, stability, and appropriate naming.

The new varieties of lotus cultivated in Chenshan Botanical Garden won the national protection right of new varieties of plants for the first time, and achieved a Dafengshou (Salad of assorted fresh vegetables). Tian Daike, the leader of the "Research Group on Innovative Utilization of Ornamental Plant Resources and Germplasm", sighed that there was a chance, but more inevitable.

"Seeds are the chips for agricultural development and the spark for garden research. Without abundant plant germplasm resources, it is impossible to have so many 'Shanghai lotus flowers'." Tian Daike said that the seven new lotus varieties, "Red Silk," "Bumblebee," "Butterfly Dance," "Zhongmei Jiao," "Face Changing," "Frost Dyed Red Chamber," and "Mandarin Feather Showing," are mostly bred through artificial hybridization, and their parents are relatively rare. Only a few units in China, such as Chenshan Botanical Garden, have access to resources.

Bumblebee

Red silk silk

Chinese and American beauties

Butterfly Dance

"Face changing" is a typical example. This hybrid lotus with Asian and American ancestry is the world's first lotus variety with significant color changes. During its flowering period, it has an impressive and significant color change: on the first day of flowering, the color is darker, then sharply lighter, and on the third day, it is almost white. If planted on a large scale, after the group enters the flowering period, a pond of lotus will simultaneously appear in red, pink, white and related gradient colors, which is highly ornamental.

The parents of "face changing" are light yellow single petal American lotus and red single petal Thai lotus. It was not until about 8 years ago that the Chenshan Botanical Garden acquired the genetic resources of these two parents.

"If you don't have strong scientific research capabilities, even if you find resources, you can't keep them alive." Tian Daike explained that the light yellow single petal American lotus is easily difficult to adapt to, and its cultivation, maintenance environment, and seed preservation environment in Shanghai have strict requirements.

At present, Chenshan Botanical Garden has established a 5000 square meter National Lotus Germplasm Resource Bank certified by the National Flower Association, and has been recognized by the International Water Lily Horticultural Association as the International Lotus Germplasm Resource Bank. It has collected and preserved over 1200 wild lotus and variety resources from multiple countries and regions such as China, the United States, Thailand, India, Vietnam, Australia, and Japan, making it the most diverse and representative lotus resource bank in the world. This has created necessary conditions for the birth of many "Shanghai lotus".

Let's look at chance again. Tian Daike used "being kissed by an angel" to describe "changing face". It is reported that when selecting its parents, they were attracted to the tall and slender figure of the American lotus and the long flowering period of the Thai lotus. As a result, the "face changing" not only lived up to expectations, inheriting these two advantages, but also showed significant color changing characteristics. "At that time, four or five years of Asian American hybrid lotus experiments had already been conducted, and this situation had not happened before. It was so surprising!"

Since 2018, Shanghai has repeatedly achieved excellent results in the cultivation of new and superior lotus varieties.

The "Apricot Spring Shirt" jointly registered by Chenshan Botanical Garden and Donghai Lotus Garden in Tangshan City, Shandong Province in 2020 is the world's first orange yellow lotus variety.

In 2019, Chenshan Botanical Garden also registered its own named "Chenshan Feiyan", which is a new variety cultivated by using radiation technology to treat the lotus seeds of wild red lotus in Weishan Lake, resulting in fewer flower covers and unique and beautiful flower shapes.

Chenshan Flying Swallow

This year, the "Fuyuan Xiuyu" and "Shuangran Honglou", both of which were granted the national protection rights for new plant varieties at Chenshan Botanical Garden, were red double petal varieties bred through the hybridization of "Qinhuai Rouge" and "Yijianlian". They have unique flower shapes and colors, and high aesthetic value.

As of now, a total of 35 new lotus varieties have completed international registration in Chenshan Botanical Garden, of which 7 new varieties have obtained national protection rights for new plant varieties. This year, Chenshan Botanical Garden plans to complete the international registration of 5 new lotus varieties.

The person in charge of Chenshan Botanical Garden revealed that the park is currently communicating with the park green space in Shanghai, hoping that in the coming year's lotus viewing season, more citizens and tourists can enjoy the locally born "Shanghai lotus" at their doorstep through concentrated displays.