Appreciation of the rare Cymbidium lianpan cultivar Jinsha Shuju (Golden Sand Tree Chrysanthemum)

Jinsha Shuju - Yang Kai's "Thousand-Hand Guanyin," also named "Jinsha Shuju," belongs to Huidong, SichuanCymbidium lianpannative species name series. Around the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2004, HuidongorchidAssociation member, Zhang Ping, a farmer from Liuhua Township who had collected wildorchidsfor sixteen years, collected a batch of medium-wide-leaf down-the-mountain (wild-collected)Cymbidium lianpanorchids from the mountains by the Jinsha River, and flower buds emerged one after another toward the end of the year. Anorchidenthusiast from a neighboring county of Huidong selected two weak plants with flower buds and one strong plant from this batch of wild-collected plants for 110 yuan. During the 2005 Spring Festival, the Huidong Orchid Association held a NewSpring OrchidExhibition. That orchid enthusiast from Huidong County brought photos of this wild-collected plant after it bloomed to the Huidong orchid exhibition, asking orchid friends to appreciate it. It coincided with the wonderful performance of the dance "Thousand-Hand Guanyin" at the Spring Festival Gala, so the flower was named "Thousand-Hand Guanyin," also named "Jinsha Shuju."
   After many negotiations, 25 members of the Huidong Orchid Association, including Meng Xianrong, He Zhisong, Li Shi'an, and Zhang Ping, together with that orchid friend from Huidong, pooled 260,000 yuan in joint-stock investment to cultivate it together. Then one old plant was divided and produced two daughter shoots. The other two strong plants also produced two new strong shoots, and in the spring of 2006 bore two scapes with two flowers each. In February 2006, the Huidong County Orchid Association sent it to the 10th Orchid Expo in Dali Prefecture (Heqing), Yunnan Province, and the famous Huidong Cymbidium lianpan cultivar "Thousand-Hand Guanyin" (also named "Jinsha Shuju") won the gold award. This flower has a tall scape that rises above the leaves; when the buds are small and arranged, the entire flower scape is flesh-pink, and the buds grow upward like round plum blossom buds. The fully opened flowers combine plum, dish, novelty, and color in one, with a pretty and elegant flower posture and a graceful, charming spirit, just like the "Thousand-Hand Guanyin" of myth suddenly appearing in the orchid world. During the orchid expo,flower-bearingthree strong plants were purchased for cultivation by Yunnan Dali orchid friends Li Guanghong and Yang Kai at a unit price of 800,000 yuan per plant, for a total price of 2.4 million yuan; another old plant was also purchased for cultivation by Dali Heqing orchid friends Su Zemin and Mu Asong for 5 million yuan.  

     "Thousand-Hand Guanyin," also named "Jinsha Shuju," and the background and artistic appreciation that shocked the orchid world:
    First, since 2003, among Cymbidium lianpan, novel and extraordinary flowers of the highest grade had basically no longer appeared.
    Second, Dali, Yunnan, is known as the hometown of famous Cymbidium lianpan cultivars. The Five Golden Flowers among Cymbidium lianpan: Cangshan Qidie, Jianyang Die, Qihua Su, Dian Mei, and Golden Coast, have been renowned in the orchid world for more than ten years. "Thousand-Hand Guanyin," also named "Jinsha Shuju," astonishingly appeared at the Yunnan Dali Orchid Expo, injecting vitality into Cymbidium lianpan, into Chinese orchids, and into the Chinese orchid world.
    Third, it should be understood and appreciated through comparative analysis with famous Cymbidium lianpan cultivars. Taking the star butterflies "Yutu Caidie," "Lijiang Xingdie," "Xinhai Die," and "Danxin Xin Die" as examples, all have the variation characteristic of the petal, that is, the lip of the petal, becoming lip-shaped; among them, "Danxin Xin Die" has a double lip, showing an occasional increase in lip-shaped petal segments. Taking the side-petal butterflies "Jianyang Die" and "Huidong He Die" as examples, all also have the variation characteristic of half-lip-shaped lateral sepals, but no increase in half-lip-shaped sepal segments appeared. Taking "Cangshan Qidie," in which core butterflies and side-petal butterflies occasionally appear at the same time, as an example, lip-shaped petal segments and side-petal half-lip-shaped petal segments appear simultaneously, as well as an occasional increase in petal segments. Taking the extraordinary core-butterfly variation "Golden Coast" as an example, it mainly shows the extraordinary variation and increase of lip-shaped petal segments in pairs, displaying unprecedented brilliance for the orchid world. Taking the plum petals "Dian Mei," "Shu Mei," and "Danxin Xue Mei" as examples, all show the variation characteristic of the petals' hard lips becoming masculinized, but none show an increase in petal segments; even including the traditional famous Spring Orchid cultivar "Song Mei" and the finest Spring Sword cultivar "Yu Haitang," none show an increase in segments of the masculinized hard-lip variation of the petals. Taking "Qihua Su," "Jianhu Qi," and "Cuiyu Ju" as examples, all show the variation characteristic of petals and lips extraordinarily becoming sepals, but none clearly show an increase in petal segments; among them, "Qihua Su" can be regarded as an increase in extraordinarily varied petal segments.
    The astonishing appearance of the Huidong Cymbidium lianpan finest cultivar "Thousand-Hand Guanyin," also named "Jinsha Shuju," is, without exaggeration, the appearance of the king of Chinese Cymbidium lianpan, and the dream sought by the Chinese orchid world. Its many petals are extraordinary, yet within the extraordinary there is proper form, and within the extraordinary there is order. Each flower is basically divided into six layers: the first layer is three to four narrow sepals; the second layer is the same, with sepals widened; the third layer is the same, with sepals widened more; the fourth layer is the same, with sepal-like but also petal-like segments widened, and in the middle appear red double stripes, having the variation characteristic of butterfly-shaped petals or half-butterfly-shaped petals, and there is an increase in butterfly-shaped or half-butterfly-shaped petal segments; the fifth layer is the most extraordinary and gorgeous, with the petals showing the variation characteristic of four to six hard-lip masculinized petals, that is, each petal has an obvious pale yellow block-shaped pollinia mass, forming a ring shape, embracing the column tip of the sixth layer in clusters. Thus it presents the Chinese orchid famous cultivar, the Cymbidium lianpan finest cultivar "Thousand-Hand Guanyin," also named "Jinsha Shuju," which, compared with other famous orchids, not only has the extraordinary variation of butterfly-shaped or half-butterfly-shaped petals as an important variation characteristic together with an increase in petal segments, but also at the same time has the extraordinary variation of hard-lip or half-hard-lip masculinization of petals as an important variation characteristic together with an increase in petal segments. Therefore, among Chinese orchid famous cultivars to date, it is unique.
     What is also especially extraordinary is that the first appearance of the Huidong Cymbidium lianpan finest cultivar "Thousand-Hand Guanyin," also named "Jinsha Shuju," was exhibited on the same stage in competition with the Yunnan Dali core-butterfly multi-lipped extraordinary flower "Golden Coast." If the two famous orchids are displayed together, one truly marvels at the wondrous work of nature and the pairing of male and female. Therefore, "Thousand-Hand Guanyin" is all the more endowed with a magical, timeless charm and a thought-provoking artistic conception.