Xinjiang tourism is completely popular. During this time, the Duku Highway has become a “crying road”. It is said that 1/3 of domestic tourists are here, the remaining 1/3 is in Tibet, and the other 1/3 is in Yunnan.
Although there are exaggerated elements, it also shows that summer is the peak tourist season in Xinjiang, and many people travel to Xinjiang.
If you are traveling in Xinjiang, or going to Xinjiang in the future, please remember: if you see wild watermelons in the desert, don’t eat them casually. If you are really thirsty, you can’t eat wild watermelons on the roadside .
The thing is, the watermelon we eat is very sweet, Juicy and juicy, it is simply an artifact to relieve the heat in summer. But the watermelon that grows in the desert is not necessarily an edible watermelon that no one has sown, but a highly poisonous watermelon: a medicinal watermelon.
This kind of watermelon is very confusing. The appearance and vines are almost the same as watermelons. Even the texture on the watermelon is similar to the watermelon. The leaves on the vines are also cracked, but it looks like Like mismanagement, the medicinal watermelon is not as big as our common watermelon.
Smash it open and take a look: “Oh, raw melon eggs! “There are even more seeds in it than the pulp.
If you find this watermelon, don’t be curious The attitude of taste it, because it is highly poisonous.
Medicinal watermelon
Medicinal watermelon is a plant of the Cucurbitaceae, watermelon genus, an annual or perennial plant, which is prostrate in its natural state Or grow semi-erect, much like a watermelon.
Unlike watermelon, the texture of medicinal watermelon is not a combination of emerald green and white, but a combination of emerald green and yellow. As the medicinal watermelon matures, the whole watermelon will turn yellow.
The whole plant of this watermelon is poisonous, and so is the fruit , After eating by mistake, you may experience dizziness, diarrhea and other symptoms, you must seek medical attention in time to prevent the disease from continuing to develop.
In fact, it is not uncommon for medicinal watermelons to be poisonous, because the ancestors of watermelons are also poisonous.
Watermelon, like medicinal watermelon, belongs to the cucurbitaceae family. Many plants in the cucurbit family are poisonous, such as: watermelon, zucchini, etc. They can produce the toxic steroid compound cucurbitacin, which is a The toxins keep them from being eaten by herbivores.
Especially for zucchini grown in hot, dry conditions , or other plants of the cucurbit family, will accumulate a high concentration of cucurbitacin inside, which will be more bitter and toxins. If you eat cucurbitaceous plants with a bitter taste, it may cause stomach cramps and diarrhea.
Some netizens may say: I eat zucchini every day, watermelon is fine, why am I not poisoned?
The reason why many Cucurbitaceae plants are included in vegetables The ranks, in fact, require humans to domesticate poisonous plants into non-toxic vegetables in the process of evolution.
Take watermelon as an example. The ancestor of watermelon is actually bitter and poisonous. It has more seeds than pulp, and it is not so different from medicinal watermelon. It is not eaten by humans at all.
Watermelon Ancestors
An article was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showing that Sudanese wild watermelon and There are genetic similarities between modern watermelons, and the Sudanese wild watermelon may be the “ancestor” of the watermelon we eat.
But the Sudanese wild watermelon is white flesh, the flesh is not sweet, and the underripe wild watermelon is poisonous, it will vomit and diarrhoea after eating, and it is mainly used as feed for poultry and livestock.
Sudan is located in the desert, which is the most lacking in the desert. What is it: water!
Watermelon is rich in water, although it does not taste delicious, but in deserts lacking water, Sudan will also carry a few ripe wild watermelons across the desert to replenish water on the road.
That’s it , Wild watermelon was spread from Sudan to Egypt. Here, watermelon was domesticated by humans. In the process of domesticating watermelon, humans not only eliminated the toxins of wild watermelon, but also turned the originally bitter watermelon into sweet. Watermelon has changed from animal feed to human dessert, and because of this characteristic, it has spread from Egypt and other places to the world.
Watermelon Breeding
Watermelon, the reason why it is called watermelon, is because it was introduced to my country from countries in the Western Regions, and gradually became popular in the Central Plains since the Song Dynasty, and was planted on a large scale.
Although watermelons have appeared on our dining table since the Song Dynasty, in the past, the watermelons that people ate were far less sweet than they are now.
The watermelon below is an oil painting drawn in the 17th century. From here, it can be seen that the watermelon has thicker skin, firmer flesh, and many white tendons and melon seeds. In fact, it is not that delicious.
The two pictures below are the 86 version of “Journey to the West” “, Sun Wukong attracted Huangmei Lao Buddha to the melon field, Huang Mei Lao Buddha opened a watermelon, it can be clearly seen from the picture that the watermelon at that time also had more white tendons. Although the pulp was already red, it was obvious from the picture. It’s not a “good melon”.
Let’s not talk about the sweet and juicy watermelon we eat now, there is obviously no white gluten inside the watermelon, and there is even a seedless watermelon. There was a qualitative improvement ten years ago.
And all this is thanks to Grandma Wu Mingzhu!
Grandma Wu Mingzhu and Grandpa Yuan Longping are classmates. One grows melons and the other grows rice. When Grandma Wu Mingzhu first graduated, she voluntarily applied to go to Xinjiang to grow melons.
In order to cultivate delicious and easy-to-sell watermelons, Grandma Wu Mingzhu and her colleagues often visit the fields to find watermelon seeds. When they hear that there are watermelons, they go to investigate.
It took more than 3 years to collect 44 local melon seeds, and took root in the fields to grow watermelons, study watermelons, work in the fields with melon farmers during the day, and light up the lights to read materials at night.
After many years, Grandma Wu Mingzhu successfully cultivated 29 varieties , including 10 early, middle and late maturing watermelon varieties and 19 melon varieties. You must know that breeding is a very time-consuming and labor-intensive thing. Some breeders can cultivate one variety in a lifetime, but Grandma Wu Mingzhu has cultivated 29 varieties.
Nowadays, many of the watermelons we eat are attributed to Grandma Wu Mingzhu, such as “8424”, which she cultivated with the No. 24 sample in 1984.
From the poisonous wild watermelon to the domestication of the poison, Add sweetness; from watermelon with thick skin and unpalatable flesh, to sweet and juicy, an artifact to cool off the heat.
Watermelon was not born to satisfy human appetite from the very beginning. On the contrary, like medicinal watermelon, it evolved toxins to prevent humans from picking it. It is a step-by-step effort of human beings to domesticate it into today’s looks like. Especially for us Chinese, who can eat such delicious and cheap watermelon, we must not forget the credit of Grandma Wu Mingzhu.