What is Taiyuan Hechunlan? An introduction to its cultivar characteristics
Petal type: Lotus petal. History: selected in 1922 at the Hangzhou Yiji Flower Nursery. Characteristics: the three outer petals are round and broad with a contracted base and tightly rolled edges. Mussel-shell-shaped cup (holds), large round tongue. The petals have distinct red vein lines, and the color is not pure green. The scape is tall, and the flower is small and delicate.
Petal type: Lotus petal
History: selected in 1922 at the Hangzhou Yiji Flower Nursery.
Characteristics: the three outer petals are round and broad with a contracted base and tightly rolled edges. Mussel-shell-shaped holds, large round tongue. The petals have distinct red vein lines, and the color is not pure green. The scape is tall, and the flower is small and delicate.
Another account: Huanhe is Taiyuan He. As for why it is called Huanhe? Because Taiyuan He, which always bloomed with muddy-colored flowers, occasionally produced a green-flowered line, just as the present-day Huanhe can produce both muddy and green scapes of flowers in the same pot. Someone eager to make something of it cut it off and sold it as a new variety under the name Huanhe, and so the record was left that it has "tender and pretty color, round and short mussel-shell holds, a small Liuhai tongue, and a relatively long scape." As for the slight tight rolling of the edges, that is a subjective description. As for that photo of a well-formed center, in fact after a slightly opened flower is cut off and allowed to dehydrate a little, the holds can be pinched closed completely. Only the record that "the leaves are long, broad and curved, forming a bow shape, making it the longest, broadest and most bow-shaped typical variety among the broad-leaved lotus-petal Chunlan" differs in its bow-shaped curled leaves from the upright leaf habit of the present-day Huanhe.
As for why Taiyuan He later disappeared, perhaps first because Taiyuan He originally existed in only small numbers, and second because after the green Huanhe rebloomed it reverted to muddy color and changed back into Taiyuan He, but the name had already spread, and the name Huanqiu Heding was far more famous than Taiyuan He, so they simply made the best of the mistake and also called the old Taiyuan He Huanhe. Through this back-and-forth, Taiyuan He instead fell into obscurity.
