It looks bizarre but calls itself a flower - is such a plant appropriate

Humulus scandens

Humulus scandens

Alias: saw-tooth vine, pull-pull vine, cut-people grass

Cannabaceae family, Humulus genus

Annual twining herb

During the Mid-Autumn Festival at home, I dug out the classic old film "Out of Africa" starring Meryl Streep to rewatch. This movie is based on the autobiography "Out of Africa" by Danish female writer Karen Blixen. I have always been fascinated by Karen's narration in the film - that voice has a captivating texture weathered by the passage of time, just like the lover's face in Duras's writing. After her lover died in a plane crash, Karen had a narration that, twenty years later, is still deeply etched in my memory:

"If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me?

Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on? Or will the children invent a game in which my name is? Or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me? Or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me..."

Karen's lover, Denys Finch Hatton, is also very famous. Coincidentally, the book "The Laws of Life" that I have been reading recently also mentions him - the establishment of the Serengeti plains in Africa as a protected area had a great deal to do with Denys's efforts.

How much deep love, how much intimate connection with the world around you, does it take to sing such a moving song?

And I also have a song, sung for the wild grasses around me. Modestly speaking, I have the same deep love for wildflowers and weeds as Karen.

Wildfire cannot burn it all, spring wind blows and it grows again... Sorry, of Bai Juyi's classic lines, the first thing that comes to my mind is Humulus scandens. On the south bank of the Yangtze River where I often take walks, Humulus scandens thrives vigorously, growing in overwhelming abundance, occupying large stretches of wasteland along the river. Not only that, even the iron railings along the riverside road often become its territory, and gardeners have to frequently prune it back drastically.

Although it is just a wildly growing weed, right now is exactly when Humulus scandens blooms, and it is still quite easy to notice. Its flowers are very small and not brightly colored, but it wins by sheer numbers, stubbornly asserting its presence.

The small flowers of Humulus scandens are delicate little clusters, blooming in the leaf axils of the upper branches. Multiple inflorescences combine to form a terminal panicle, trembling and swaying in the wind. The small flowers are usually green, with purplish ones also common. The perianth cleft to the base was initially mistaken by me for a calyx - because it looks so much like the calyx of many flowering plants: green, lanceolate with membranous transparent edges, densely covered with hairs outside.

Male inflorescence

Male flower buds, fuzzy

Each small flower has five stamens, colored a darker yellow-green, opposite the perianth lobes. The anthers are elongated, the filaments extremely short, and the small flowers usually droop downward. When the wind blows, the stamens wobble as if about to fall, making one feel protective.

At this point, you will discover that the perianth and stamens are all there is to the flower - in the center of the flower, it is completely empty, with no pistil. That's right, all the flowers described above are male flowers. Humulus scandens is dioecious, bearing unisexual flowers.

Male flower

Before I went out this time to find specimens and dissect them, I seemed to have never seen its female flowers. When I followed the guide to find the female flowers, I couldn't help but laugh - they were right there in front of me, everywhere, except that the female flowers of Humulus scandens are so bizarre-looking, like an Avatar, that I simply could not believe it was a flower.

The bizarre-looking female inflorescence

The female inflorescence is also solitary in the leaf axil, but it looks more like a tender leaf bud: many layers of fuzzy green bracts overlapping like roof tiles, with the inflorescence usually drooping, called a false catkin. Inside each bract is a female flower, which is really just an ovary as small as half a mung bean. However, two long thread-thin stigmas extend from the bracts, at least confirming its identity as a flower.

Bracts and stigmas of female flowers

In this season, the fruits of Humulus scandens have already grown. The achenes are bright brown, flat and round, and when mature they emerge from the bracts, like a baby in swaddling clothes revealing a sweet smile in sleep. I came across a traditional Chinese medicine book that says Humulus scandens is "clad in thousands of needles, with a single kernel of benevolence within" - quite a vivid description.

Achene, image from the internet

The mature leaves of Humulus scandens are palmately five-lobed, with neat serrations along the edges and a deep heart-shaped base. The upper surface of the leaf is sparsely covered with stiff hairs, while the bristles on the underside grow only on the veins. It seems some insect particularly loves its leaves - in the wild patches of Humulus scandens, it is easy to find large numbers of leaves eaten down to mere fragments. At the base of the petiole there is a pair of stipules, also very unusual in shape, like a capital letter M, and also like a pair of rabbit ears. The young leaves are much softer and cuter, densely covered with white hairs on both sides, feeling fuzzy to the touch, very pleasant.

Leaves opposite, papery, petiole long

Eaten

Young leaves are very soft and cute

Stipules

In Chongqing, very few people call it Humulus scandens; everyone calls it saw-tooth vine or ju-ju vine. This is because its stems, petioles, and pedicels are all covered with bristles and barbed thorns. Every time my hand touches it, there is a stinging pain like being pricked by a rusty needle. Later, I simply wrapped it in a napkin, and only then successfully completed the dissection.

Stems, branches, and petioles all have barbed thorns

Although being pricked by the thorns is not very comfortable, dissecting Humulus scandens always brings me great satisfaction. Its female flowers, stamens, and young leaves all withstand such careful appreciation, once again confirming what I often say:Even the humblest weed can withstand the scrutiny of the most discerning eye。

What is a weed? According to the definition of American female poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox, it is simply "an unloved flower." But love originates from the heart, and the human heart is the most fickle of things. "No eternal friends, only eternal interests" applies everywhere, and is simply the best footnote to the fickleness of the human heart.

Although most people dislike Humulus scandens, it has had its brief moment of glory. This wild grass native to Asia was introduced to North America in the 18th century as an ornamental plant, grew aggressively, and quickly swept across the northern United States and eastern Canada. As a result, it became an invasive plant - being favored and being neglected are, after all, full of dramatic reversals.

The Humulus genus is sparsely populated, with only three species. Besides this species, there is one other - Humulus yunnanensis distributed in Yunnan. But the third one has risen to world-class star status - that is the famous hops (H. lupulus), the indispensable soul ingredient for brewing beer, found wild in northern Sichuan, Xinjiang, and Gansu, and widely cultivated around the world.

Plants of the Humulus genus are called hop in English, meaning hops, because all three species of this genus can be used to brew beer. Interestingly, this hop shares the same word as the second half of hip-hop. Humulus scandens is called wild hop or Japanese hop in English, meaning wild hops or Japanese hops.

Female inflorescence of hops, image from the internet

Name explanation:

The genus name Humulus of Humulus scandens comes from humus, meaning "of the ground," referring to the plant's creeping growth habit. The species epithet scandens has the same meaning, meaning climbing or creeping. When looking up information, I found that abroad, the scientific name of Humulus scandens has been revised to Humulus japonicus, and the original one has been treated as a synonym.

The article and plant images (unless otherwise credited) are all original by the author

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