Huayuan reveals red skirts and green sleeves, red and green setting each other off beautifully

   At the moment the Yuanzi bloomed, I used my camera to capture its spirited, perfect instant, using a textbook-style illustrated approach to comprehensively explain the "Yuan" of this cymbidium flower.

Head shape: In "Lan Hui Tong Xin Lu" (A Joint Record of Orchids and Cymbidiums), the head shape of Yuanzi is the "small three-in-one gate", which is the "small three-in-one head shape" among Shen Peilin's "eight methods of head shapes" for cymbidium buds. While Orchids and "Three Hundred Questions on Chinese Orchid Art" say it is the "large flat cut" style, referring to the "large flat cut" among the "five gates and eight styles" of cymbidium small bud head shapes. The two head shapes should have an inevitable connection. See the example in the figure:

Lip:The "zhigui lip" (court-tablet lip), with red markings in connected blocks, like the court tablets of ancient times. The shape of the zhigui lip is a rectangular lip (slightly narrower in the middle), extending obliquely downward and flat without curling, with a bluntly pointed tip; among petal-type flowers, the lip shape of Yuanzi has already become the model of the "zhigui lip".

As the flower bud keeps swelling, the position of the lip also undergoes different changes; using several photos of the bud in different states as examples, here is a detailed explanation of the unfolding of the zhigui lip.

Front view of the extension of the lip tip.

View of the lip's form from the belly of the flower bud

State of the lip when the flower is about to open

The lip surface droops and does not curl

 

Photo of the bright red front surface of the lip


Petals (the two lateral petals over the lip):semi-hard silkworm-moth petals, green visible within the petals, yellowed patches visible at the petal tips, and the front of the petals seeming to have a finger-like form, like a hand holding the "court tablet" (the lip), which can also be called "folded-fist petals".A close-up photo of the petals, seemingly with a finger-like shape, and with yellowed patches at the petal tips.

A portrait of the image of a hand holding the "court tablet" (two Yuanzi flowers whose petal tips have "beauty marks", differing in that one is on the left and one on the right)


Outer petals:long feet and round heads, tightly edged, thick in substance, with level shoulders in an arched embrace, and with thick heads.This is a photo of the top flower just opening,
which can clearly show the above features

A photo of the fully opened outer three petals, with the outer three petals elongated


A perfect interpretive photo of the whole flower


Flower scape:The stalk is thick and rises above the leaves, the light purple-green small hairpins are sparse and bright, the small sheaths are green with a floating purple blush, and the bearing is magnificent.




There is a poem in praise of it:     In red trousers and green sleeves she steps like Consort Pan,

               In the empty valley, her fragrant voice is rarely appreciated.

               Were it not for her spiritual root on the precious mat,

               How could her honored name take the championship prize?