1938, German explorers collected a few centimeter high alpine snow lotus (squirrel snow rabbit) at the southern slope of the Mount Qomolangma, about 6300 meters above sea level. It was recorded as the highest distributed higher plant in the world, and was regarded as the classics by the international Alpine Botanical Monographs and textbooks. No one has ever found the plant since then.
from 2011 onwards, Zhong Yang began to lead the team in finding snow lotus. One day in June, they climbed the Mount Qomolangma again.
walk to the camp of Mount Everest, the alpine snow lotus has not yet appeared.
"keep going up!" Chung Yang was breathing heavily, and his feet limped unsteadily. His expression was stronger than ever.
Professor Joan Joan, a professor at the University of Tibet School of science, recalled: "I felt that Mr. Zhong was not a Tibet mountain people, and was not familiar with the mountain situation. It might be dangerous to suggest that he wait for us in the tent." Who knows he said, "you can climb and I can climb", he brought me back. In the end, he can't do it.
"found it! Find it! "
Zhong Yang's hoarse voice has a strange excitement.
this is a bare rock after the glacier degenerates. In the crevice of the rock, there is a very small plant with a height of only 10 centimeters, with gray and white POM balls. The shape of flower is like a thumb, and the shape of petals is winding its endless breath. Zhong Yang looked at a newly born child, with a deep joy on his face and a long gaze.
"this discovery enables us to find confidence in the highest altitudinal distribution of plants in the existing world records, and further molecular biological analysis will provide a scientific basis for revealing the origin and dynamics of its population and its relationship with global changes."
Zhong Yang said he would take inventory of the "biological home" in the "no man's land".
the steep slope went straight down, and he was trekking. No matter how far and far more dangerous, the plateau reaction is more serious, as long as the research helps, Zhong Yang takes students, from Linzhi, Shigatse, to Nagqu, Ali, one by one collection of plant specimens and DNA samples;
the moon is round and round, his lights are not extinguished. Tibet giant cypress is long on the edge of the cliff of the Yarlung Zangbo River. He takes his students up the steep cliff. He is rolling the river at his feet. The seeds of the Seabuckthorn are difficult to pick up, the clock Yang has picked up the most, and the thorn is full of hand.
Ali has an unmanned area, known as "the ridge of the roof of the world", with an average altitude of more than 4500 meters, the climate is cold and dry, the average wind speed is more than 3.2 meters per second, and it is a dead end for any aerobic organism to survive.
some people have advised Zhong Yang not to go to Ali, where the elevation is too high, the conditions are too bitter, and the species is less. Zhong Yang said, "it is because other people do not want to go. There must be some undiscovered plants in the area of Ali. Even if it is bitter, we must go!"
Zhong Yang's life could have been very calm. When
15, Zhong Yang was admitted to the junior class of University of Science and Technology of China; at the age of twenty, he became a leading figure in the field of domestic botany. At the age of 33, he was the deputy director of the deputy hall when he resigned from the Wuhan Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to a general teacher at Fudan University.
but he chose to walk on the plateau with his life and devote himself to the teaching of the first line: "life is so long to dedicate the most precious time to the most needed place for the motherland!"
some people asked Zhong Yang to pick seeds all day long without any immediate economic benefits. Is it worth it?
"the merits do not have to be in me." He said, "suppose there is cancer after more than 100 years, it is found that one plant can fight cancer, but maybe this plant has disappeared because of climate change. It will be recalled that more than 100 years ago, a professor surnamed Zhong seemed to have collected it.
some people asked Zhong Yang how long he would stay in Tibet. He said firmly, "I will not leave the doctorate of Botany in Tibet."
"while looking up at the stars, don't forget to be down-to-earth, because many great things in the world are boiled out." He was a "seed Hunter", with only "old three" "dead cake"
in the workroom of the Fudan University Zhong Yang, a large number of newspapers were stored in a large number of newspapers that he and his team collected from all over the world. Specimens of plants and plants (taken in January 24, 2018). Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Ying photo
inventory "family property", need to "look for a needle in a haystack."
this is a slender and erect grass. When the flower bud is blooming, it opens the four petal flowers with the same grain size.
between the gully and gully of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, such grass is like a drop in the ocean.
, however, this seemingly unseen grass is widely studied because of its simple structure, short growth cycle and small genome, which is a "little mouse" that botanists cherish.
Arabidopsis thaliana was incorporated into flora in the 50s of last century. However, after the application of gene technology, the genome of Arabidopsis thaliana could not be sequenced and analyzed deeply because no one had collected its samples and seeds on the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. Once we find this plant, we can grasp the new materials of stress biology research and reproduce the origin and evolution process of plateau plants.
Liu Tianmeng, a doctoral student in ecology at the University of Tibet, can't forget the figure that Mr. Zhong took them to search for wild Arabidopsis: "he breathed and breathed us to the mountain, not a crack in a rock, and a little grass beside a cliff." You know, many seeds are not hanging on trees, waiting on the roadside waiting for people to gather, but hidden in the boundless wasteland.