The 580-year-old willow tree in Miyun, Beijing, ushered in its heyday.

There are only three ancient willows in Beijing.

The flowering period lasts about 10 days.

How long can the ancient willow bloom? According to Jiang, secretary of Sujiayu Village Committee, Sujiayu ancient willow began to blossom in May this year 10, and it is expected to last for about 10 days. The flowering period in previous years was in mid-May. Wang Yinjiang also said that the ancient willow not only has high flowering value, but also leaves can be used to make tea, so it is also called "tea tree". In the past, villagers often picked tassel leaves and made tea by steaming, kneading and drying. In his impression, tassel tea tastes slightly astringent and has the effect of clearing away heat and summer heat. But with the villagers' awareness of protecting ancient trees, no one has picked leaves to make tea.

Man-made improvement of site environment

Old trees restore "leaves before flowers"

Hu Yumin, the stationmaster of forestry station in Xinchengzi Town, said that they would water the ancient willow trees with green water every spring, remove aphids in summer and water them with frozen water before winter. Last spring, they found that the ancient willow showed signs of weakness. Leaves and flowers grew almost at the same time. Under normal circumstances, it should be "leaves first, then flowers". In order to improve the growth of ancient trees, in April this year, the staff of forestry station in Xinchengzi Town, together with plant protection experts, improved the site environment of ancient willow trees, and achieved immediate results, basically restoring the "leaves before flowers".

According to Chen Zhigang, the designer who participated in the protection work, first of all, they uprooted the original guardrail, wooden plank road and hardened ground, expanded the nutritional area of ancient trees from 16 square meters to more than 260 square meters, and cleaned up the muck, replaced the planting soil, watered and fertilized; Secondly, a cellar was found in the ancient tree protection area and backfilled; Thirdly, the Toona sinensis and chestnut trees competing for growth space around the ancient trees were transplanted. Chen Zhigang revealed that it is necessary to have a physical examination of the ancient willow, and then make an ontology protection plan according to the physical examination.

The age of this tree has been adjusted to 580 years.

Historical information needs to be verified

According to the latest age calculation of 580 years, Sujiayu ancient willow was planted in 144 1 year (the sixth year of Ming Dynasty). So, who planted this ancient willow? There are two kinds of legends circulating in the local area, one is the survival in the wild, and the other is planted here by southerners, but no exact textual research has been found so far.