Not Cherry Blossoms, But Better Than Cherry Blossoms: Enjoy Red Leaf Plums in These Places This Spring
By Jiang Evening News · Xiao Hour News reporter Zhang Ran, correspondent Wang Pingping/wen Zhang Shengdong, Zhu Bing, Lou Mei Li et al./photography
Entering March, with everything recovering, the flowers in Hangzhou have already bloomed very well.
At the end of the alley, pure white magnolia flowers, golden chrysanthemum flowers, purple-pink two jiu mao lan flowers, pale yellow deep mountain smiling, golden Yunnan yellow flowers, stood full of branches, everywhere spring exuberance.
In the past two days, the most common thing seen on the streets of Hangzhou was red leaf plum.
Fine and dense pink white flowers bloomed on the branches, getting closer and looking closely, you would find that they were small five-petaled star-shaped petals, which were very cute, and from a distance they looked like a profusion of cherry blossoms, in spring, you could easily mistake them for cherry blossoms.
But don’t mistake it, although it is as romantic and beautiful as a cherry blossom, it is called red leaf plum.
Red leaf plum is a deciduous small tree of the Rosaceae family, also known as purple leaf plum.
Its leaves and branches are always in shades of purple red, it is a famous ornamental tree species, purple shimmering leaves, purple red branches, whether in spring or in summer, the purple leaves stand out against the green, making it particularly distinctive and beautiful, you can often see its figures in Hangzhou’s parks and along the roadside.
Red leaf plum sheds its leaves every winter, and as soon as spring arrives, the pink white flowers and purple red leaves emerge together to greet spring. Its flowers are extremely small, seemingly simple, but very numerous, when they bloom in large quantities, countless pink white small flowers cover the branches, as if they were about to wrap the purple red leaves tightly, so that you could only see the flowers on the branches and not see a patch of purple red leaves, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is full of flowers on the branches.
Spring breeze blows, fine petals fall from the branches, petal rain falls from the sky, small petals fall on the grass, fall on the stream, fall on the black heni, which is quite poetic.
The flowering period of red leaf plum is very short.
Awakened by the spring breeze, they have recently exploded overnight, blooming with endless flowers, blooming calmly and quietly, but quickly falling and fading, it seems to be telling everyone that spring has come.
The leaves and branches of red leaf plum are eye-catching purple red, in addition to flowering, they are also important colorful leaf trees in urban green spaces, especially in autumn, in the colorful hues of orange, red, and yellow, only a touch of purple stands out, it is truly unique.
Red leaf plum blooms in spring, and after flowering, it also produces red fruit similar to plum trees, the fruit is round in some cases and elliptical in others, like tiny cherries.
However, the taste of these fruits is not as good as plums and cherries, they are mostly sour and astringent, and some curious and hungry people secretly picked them to taste, and then secretly threw them away.
In fact, the fruits in the park green spaces cannot be tasted casually, because they are ornamental plants, and landscape engineers spray medicine to treat and prevent insect and disease problems in red leaf plum during growth.
Hangzhou City Park and Green Development Center recommends that everyone appreciate red leaf plum at these best locations this spring: Zijiang Road along the line, Beishan Road along the line, Jiniao North Road Sheng Yuan South Street intersection, Jin Xuan Garden, Gu Dang Wan River Xinghua Road, Shangdong River, West Lake Science and Technology Park Zhenhua Road intersection, Xinye Road, Yuhang Tang Road, City Terrace, Cai He Road, Xixi Road, Chengdong Park, Doumen Park, Bo Mei Road, Binjiang Park, Binjiang Civic Square etc.
