Studies On Ethnobotany And Cultivar Resources Of Lotus (Nelumbo Nucifera) In Henan Province

ABSTRACT According to textual research, Lotus as one of the most ancient cultivated plants, which have been cultivated for more than 3,000 years in China. There were abundant locus cultivars and native resources in China, but many of these resources have not been developed and utilized effectively. Meanwhile lotus plays an important role in the process of angiosperm evolution. Lotus was one of the ancient angiosperms, known as the“living fossil”, which was the surviving relic plant after ice age. Lotus pollens with three germination ditches were completely different from that of water lily with one germination ditch, and embryology studies also suggested there were large differences between locus and water lily on germ structure and chloroplast growth pathway. This paper made a systematic research on lotus national botany, and an evaluation to genetic diversity of lotus resources in Henan local areas and introduced to Henan on morphology and DNA molecular level. Key area of national botanical research was Henan province, including Shanxi province,Gansu province, Shanxi province, Shandong province and other Yellow River civilization birthplace.1、Taking the ancient books of the Han dynasty culture and modern research literature as research materials, the regional investigation was conducted and it was proved in detail that historical origin, inheriting relationship, cultivation origin, development and evolution of cultivation technology. It was found that there was carbonized lotus seed indoor in Henan Yangshao culture archaeological site 5,000 years ago, which suggested that people had took lotus seed as food. And over 3,000 years ago in《Zhou Shu》it was recorded,“when river was dry, lotus root appeared and was digged”, which suggested that people in our country had started to plant edible lotus root. According to Suzhou“play flower-spinning pool”of Lingyan mountain textual ruins, lotus was introduced and planted as an ornamental plant 2,500 years ago because the king of Wu dynasty entertaining Xishi. The earliest historical record of potted lotus was the saying“I plant several basins of flowers with many leaves this year, and over 20 of them flower, which is considerable”in the book of calligrapher Wang xizhi in Eastern Jin dynasty 1,600 years ago.《QiMinYaoShu》written by Jia Sixie of Northern Wei dynasty 1400 years ago recorded the method of planting lotus root, which can short its age of growth and increase production. The method is also useful for us today.2、By researching formation and historical evolution of lotus culture some conclusions are drawn. （1） Lotus was close to people’s daily life. As the extensive applications, progress of cultivation technology, increase of cultivars and entertainment of production activities lotus became an ornamental plant. （2）During the long historical period, cultural content and meaning of lotus developed further. Symbolic significance of lotus’s beauty, lucky, holy and purity constantly sublimate and expland, which are handed from generation to generation in China under the unique national cultural environment and religious art system. （3）Literature and folk tales praise the merits of lotus in the long cultural inheritance from ancient to modern times. Lotus become a cultural symbol gradually and represent a kind of noble literati moral integrity. （4） Along with the lotus cultural development lotus also became an important religious holy thing and has close relations especially with Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. The cultural specialness of locus suggest its important status in Chinese traditional culture. It has permeated in the people’life as the sensual happiness and spiritual sustenance, also provides never-failing material sources for artistic creation.3、According to the research of how lotus can be appreciable, edible and officinal in ancient times, the results suggested ancestor in the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties began to appreciate lotus; lotus was used widely in Chinese ancient garden in the Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Sui, Tang and Song dynasties; to the Ming and Qing dynasties lotus developed greatly in Jiangnan private gardens. Lotus root, seed and petal are all edible. The simple traditional culture of edible lotus contain a lot of knowledge about resource utilization and protection of lotus and the scientific connotation of lotus biodiversity management and use. According to herbalism textual research, many parts of lotus are used medicinally. Lotus petals can invigorate circulation of blood and stop bleeding, lotus seed can nourish heart, lotus stamen can be beneficial for kidney, lotus leaves can lose weight, lotus root can relieve bruises and fire toxin, lotus peduncle can discharge fire.4、In order to protect lotus genetic diversity and use it reasonably the paper investigated and introduction lotus cultivars（strains） in Henan province, researched their geographical distribution and conservation method of lotus germ plasm resources. There were 96 cultivars whose characters were steady including Henan native cultivars and successfully introduction cultivars. some other were during the process of introduction and domestication. On the production scale, it was the lotus root cultivation mainly and there were 8 lotus root cultivars distributing in the Huanghuai River. 88 ornamental lotus cultivars were mainly introduced distributing parks and scenic spots in Henan province. There was almost no seed lotus for production and the existing seed lotus cultivars were used to appreciate as ornamental lotus. There were 31 native cultivars including 15 wild and half-wild cultivars distributing in the water areas and wetlands of many villages in the south of Yellow River. Henan lotus resources and types were fewer, and it’s unbalanced among the cultivar number of certain kinds of types. Based on the resource investigation, it was further discussed that possibility, necessity and feasibility to protect modern biological diversity using traditional culture.5、Based on the investigation to lotus cultivar resources in Henan province, this paper chose 96 introduction cultivars and 31 native cultivars（strains） which characters were stable in Henan province and established the evaluation system of lotus cultivar sources in Henan. The system selected 15 main ornamental characters, which were length of ripe leaves, width of ripe leaves, height of leave petiole, flowering phase of group, density of flowering, shape of flower-bud, color of flower-bud, form of flower, flower diameter, color of flower, type of flower, number of petals, length of petal,width of petals and height of flower stalk. According to the grey situation decision-making principle of grey system theory the main characters of above 127 lotus cultivars（strains） were analyzed using method of character weighting and these cultivars were sequenced. The best ten cultivars of 127 lotus cultivars（strains） on general ornamental characters were‘Dasajin’,‘Xuelihong’,‘Aoshuang’,‘Eliansihao’,‘Donghong’, Lingbao Dinghu bay lotus strains,‘Yanermei’, Xixian Chenpeng Wang lake lotus strains,‘Shuguang’, Luoshan Gaowan village lotus strains. Among the best ten there were three native cultivars（strains） which suggested the native lotus cultivars were important parental resources for breeding. The result was in accordance with actual production. The evaluation system provided an objective analysis method to overall evaluation of lotus.6、By a principal component analysis to 26 characters of lotus including 96 main cultivars in Henan such as‘Wawalian’,‘Danxia’,‘Xiaotaihong’, and 31 native cultivars（strains） such as‘Jiukongwenlian’,‘Qisihonglian’, the several main indexes affecting classification of lotus cultivars were size of plants, flower diameter, type of flowers, color of flowers and form of flowers. As classification standard of lotus cultivars size of plants was class I, flower diameter was class II, types of flowers was classⅢ, and color of flowers was class IV. Taking out of two similar morphological characters, Q type clustering analysis was made to 127 main lotus cultivars（strains） in Henan on 24 characters by quantity classification method. By comprehensive comparison, sample clustering is very suitable for lotus cultivar classification. Through analysis, these cultivars were divided into two groups at the combination line L₀ =3.7453, which were large size type （groupⅠ）, small and medium-sized type （groupⅡ） . Large size type was divided into three groups at the combination line L₂=2.8234, which were group A, group B, group C. Small and medium-sized type was divided into three groups at the combination line L₄=2.5671, which were duplicate-petalled type （group D）, double-petalled type （group E and group F）, few-petalled and half double-petalled type （group G）. These types can be divided into several small groups. In lotus breeding and production, proper cultivars were chosen according to characters of the different kinds of lotus in order to reduce the blindness and workload.7、The molecular evaluation of lotus genetic diversity was studied. Genetic distance tree diagram of ISSR population was constructed and the classification systems of lotus cultivars were supplemented and completed.（1） The best ISSR-PCR amplification reaction procedures was 94℃for 5min as pre-degeneration; 94℃for 30s as degeneration; 49⁵4℃for 30s as annealing（specific temperature was due to the different primers.）; 72℃for 90s as extension; 30 circulation; 72℃for 7min as extension; 10℃for preservation.（2）This experiment chose five primers and got 44 amplification spectral bands, of which there were 25 polymorphism bands. There were 5 polymorphism bands per primer on average with 26.7% 66.7% of primer polymorphism information and the average was 56.8%. 33 Lotus cultivars（strains） were completely separated by 3 primers and the DNA fingerprint of these cultivars（strains） was established, which were primer UBC811 with six polymorphism bands （850bp, 710bp, 590bp, 460bp,329bp,283bp）, primer UBC840 with four polymorphism bands（1235bp,875bp, 691bp,210bp） and primer UBC880 with 1 polymorphism （406bp）.（3）According to results of DNA amplification genetic similarity coefficient of cultivars was from 0.5 to 0.8. The results of ISSR molecular markers also showed the abundant variation and greater genetic diversity of Chinese lotus should be an outcome of evolution for a long time. （4） Using UPGMA cluster analysis to 33 lotus cultivars（strains）, they were roughly divided into four groups. GroupⅠincluded 14 cultivars which were‘LuoXiaYingXue’,‘JiaoRongZuiBei’,‘XiaoYan’,‘AnTouQing’,‘LiXia’,‘ChangBaiOu’,‘Small 3735’,‘ChuTianXiangYun’and other 6 strains from Lingbao Dinghu bay, Lingbao Houdi, Sanmenxia swan lake, Minquan Linqi reservoir, Yucheng Xiaoqiaoji black dragon spring; Yucheng Xiaoqiaoji pool; groupⅡincluded 16 cultivars, which were‘Dicuilian’,‘Ziyulian’,‘Lufengchun’,‘Smallzhizi’,‘Dielianhua’,‘Dandingyuge’,‘Luhuanong’,‘Baiyizhanshi’,‘Zuilihua’,‘Fenqinglian’,‘Lizhifangzi’,‘Saifozuo’,‘Shuangchenyue’,‘Huangli’,‘Huangli’,‘Yemingzhu’,‘Xiaobilian’;‘Baie’belonged to groupⅢ; groupⅣincluded‘Tiangaoyundan’and‘Cuiweixizhao’.