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The ecology of tea
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nature, water and soil conservation, and tea.
Here, besides introducing the seasonal climates and habits of tea growth, we
also have simple introductions about the Agriope Aemula, Muller’s Barber, Bahia
grass, Bermuda grass, Carpet grass, and Lubinghua that were mentioned in the
interviews.
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The seasonal climates for growing
tea |
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Because
Taiwan
has a suitable climate, and the tea shoots can be picked several times a year,
certain areas can be harvested up to 6 times a year. But the quality of the tea
shoots are affected by factors such as the tea species, the age of the trees, the
tree shape, the cultivation and management methods, the harvesting methods, the
time period, and the standards of picking. In terms of the season, the
different harvesting seasons can be divided into spring, summer, June white,
autumn, white dew, and winter tea. At the same time the season must correspond
with the terrain, if the slope of the tea garden is Yang slope (facing the sun),
the tea growth is more suitable for spring and winter tea compared to summer
and autumn tea, Yin slope tea gardens are more suitable for growing summer and
autumn tea compared to spring and winter tea. |
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Habits of tea |
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Tea
trees like humidity, so any location that is next to a river, has heavy morning
fog, water vapor, and has temperatures between 15 to 18 degrees Celsius is
suitable for growing tea. In tropical and subtropical locations, areas at
higher sea levels with colder weather are better. In northern
Taiwan
it is
rainy season at the turn of winter and spring, the average yearly temperature
is around 21 degrees, the mountains have higher sea level and have slightly
colder weather; it is favorable for tea tree development.
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The green fertilizer - Lubinghua |
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The Lubinghua is “Lupins,” translated from Latin it is
lupus (wolf) meaning it will destroy the land, but in reality it is opposite, because
their roots have Rhizobium symbiosis and can fix atmospheric nitrogen, it can
be used as green fertilizers, and is often used in gardens in the Europe and
the U.S.
Lubinghua is often grown in
fields or among the tea trees, after flowering, it is plowed into the soil to
fertilize the land, in the movie “Lubinghua” it represented the premature death
of an artistically gifted child, although he died early, he inspired the hearts
of people.
When we were interviewing the Mr.
Lin the mechanic from the Construction Bureau, he talked about the green
fertilizer for tea – Lubinghua, during the fallow period of tea gardens; it not
only plays the important role of fertilizing the land, it also plays the role
of tourism and beautifying!! |
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The plant size of Lupin is around 30 – 100 centimeters, the
stem is divided into single stem or stem branching, it is upright with a smooth
hairless stalk, the flower is racemiform and butterfly shaped. Lupins originated
from the
Southern Mediterranean
, usually two species
are referred to: pot flowers and cut flowers, generally cut flowers are used.
There are hundreds of types of Lupins with rich colors such
as white, yellow, blue, and purple; mainly the Yellow Lupins and the Blue
Lupins are the most richly colored. The Yellow Lupin as the name only has
yellow flowers, the plant is short, and it flowers earlier. The Blue Lupin has
light purple, red, or light orange flowers; it is very beautiful when the
flowers sway together in the wind. |
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Bahia grass |
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Bahia grass is a perennial or creeping grass, it has a
thick stolon, short internodes, a red crown highlighted with purple, abundant
tillers, developed subterranean stems, a vast amount of root system, and the
vertical distribution can reach up to
100
cm
underground. It has deep colored leaves, smooth and slightly
glossy, with length of 20 –
30 cm
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and width over 0.6 –
1.2 cm
.
The flower is racemiform, with two blossoms, bending upward, usually around 4 –
7 cm
long. It has oval
or inverted oval shaped seeds, with length of 0.3 –
0.35 cm
, they are smooth, shiny, waxy, and the
germination rate is low.
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Soil and
water conservation grass –
lobular Bahia
grass
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Bahia grass is a tropical plant; it is a Carpet grass with
lower tolerance for low temperatures.
St.
Augustine
grass and Centipede grass are slightly
better, they have good shade tolerance, wear tolerance, and drought resistance;
their post-drought recovery ability is also worth mentioning. The soil
adaptability of Bahia grass is extensive; it can survive in sandy-earth with
good drainage and sticky soil that retains water. It especially can adapt to
rough and barren coastal ground, but does not have tolerance toward salt; the
soil adaptability pH range is between 6.5 – 7.5.
The lawn that Bahia grass forms is a low-quality turf,
usually it is used for green areas with unspecific purposes or only for
covering, these types of sites include slopes besides roads or green areas
between airport runways, they are usually areas that need green coverage yet
lack maintenance funds. |
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Bermuda grass |
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Bermuda grass is also known as Cynodon or Wiregrass; it is
now widely used in moist areas, including tropical and subtropical turf
grasses. Besides being used for turf grass, it is also main forage grass
species of the tropics.
Bermuda grass is a tropical plant, with a type C4
photosynthesis anatomy, it likes strong light, long periods of sunshine; it has
low shade tolerance, and is a type of xerophyte. It can survive in tropical or
subtropical regions with annual rainfall over 60 to
250 mm
. It has a superior drought and salt tolerance,
although it prefers humid environments, but cannot be submerged. The
environmental factors that limit Bermuda grass are the temperature and the
sunshine, the best growth temperature is between 25-35 degrees Celsius, appropriate
temperature along with complete sunshine conditions, can form a high-quality
turf. Lawns that are grown in a shaded environment will be unable to recover
and disappear after the winter, because the underground storage nodes could not
accumulate enough energy such as carbohydrates. |
Soil and water conservation grass
– Bermuda grass
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Bermuda grass can adapt to various types of soil from sandy
earth to clay, the soil pH is not limited, but the best pH is between 6.5 and
8. Bermuda grass is a mid-upper level plant that needs fertilization, in every
month of the growing season, every hectare needs around
10 kg
of effective nitrogen in order to maintain the
minimum lawn quality; it may not survive in over-barren soil.
Apart from being forage grass, the application of Bermuda
grass on lawns include: (1) soil and water conservation through surface
coverage: for example pond slope stability, soil and water conservation and
virescence of road slopes, (2) virescence of courtyard lawns, (3) to provide
padding to reduce collision injury, such as fields for contact sports like
soccer and football, or the emergency taxiing lawns surrounding the airport
runways, (4) golf-course greens, the tee, the fairways, and the rough areas. |
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Muller’s Barbet |
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The Muller’s Barbet has
five colors on its body, with a body length around
23 cm
. Their body is mainly covered in bright green,
the head and neck has red, yellow, blue, and black; matching these colors together,
they look as if they are clowns getting ready to go perform on stage.
Their reproduction
activity starts in March and ends in late August, June to July is their
reproductive peak. It is estimated that from hatching, feeding, to the time the
young birds leave the nest, takes a total of around one month’s time. They are
monogamous during breeding, and the mating birds often sing “duets” together;
which means they often sing back and forth among each other.
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The Muller’s Barbet on the branch.
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The Muller’s Barbet has
a round body shape with a thick broad beak, at the base there are erected
bristles, their tail and wings are slightly short, they are not good at flying
and will often stand quietly on dry branches or among the leaves and branches
of the mid-upper layers of trees. The Muller’s Barbet has very good color
protection, if they did not call out: “Guo, Guo, Guo!” in their low monotonous voice,
it would be very difficult to locate them. Because they have this type of
voice, it sounds similar to monks beating on a Muyu, so this bird is also
called “Flower Monk.”
The Muller’s Barbet
likes locations that are dry and ventilated. They are like woodpeckers, and
will drill nesting burrows in dry trees or branches because the moisture
content of dead wood is lower, the wood does not breed parasites easily.
The Barbet is
distributed in Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and the
West Indies
; they live mainly in tropical forests. In
Taiwan
, they
mainly habitat lower elevation mountainous areas among the upper levels of
dense broad-leaf forests or secondary forests, as well as in various forests in
Kenting.
Images and descriptions source:http://news.ngo.org.tw/topic/bird/Megalaima-oorti/Megalaima-oorti.htm http://w3.loxa.edu.tw/s915221/8.htm |
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Agriope Aemula |
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The body length of the female Agriope Aemula is around 20 –
25 mm
, the male is
around 4 –
6 mm
, and
their abdomen is a long oval shape, with the front truncate in shape. The back
of their abdomen is golden yellow, the black stripes on the top are divided
into three groups, the first and second groups have two to three black stripes,
and the third group with the biggest range, has a mesh-like abdomen end. The backs
of the males are dark brown, with a black abdomen and a yellow white
moon-shaped stripe in the front. |
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The Agriope Aemula lives in low-elevation mountains, they
spin their webs in high grass or the bushes next to trails, the webs are round,
and usually have an X shaped white stabilimenta. The male spiders often are
eaten by the female during mating, the oocysts are pear-shaped and are often hidden
in the leaves near the web; the female spider will die before the small spiders
hatch.
Note: Spiders are classified as phylum Anthropoda, class
Arachnida, order Aranea. The characteristics of Arachnida are the head and
chest are combined, forming the cephalothorax, they have six pairs of limbs,
including 4 pairs of legs, a pair of fangs, and a pair of feelers. Spiders have
two types of lifestyles, snarer spiders and hunter spiders, most spiders can
spin webs, but some cannot.
Image source: http://adm.ncyu.edu.tw/~pprotec/animals/p0086.htm |
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Agriope Aemula |
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Carpet grass is a
tropical type plant with a type C4 photosynthesis anatomy. Observing it in
Taiwan
, it is a
shade tolerant lawn grass species, and it likes humidity and rain, but has a
more obvious growing reaction in bright light and long periods of sunshine. It
is adaptable in loose soil and does not survive well in sticky soil that
retains water. It has a low tolerance toward low temperatures, every year when
the winter northeast wind arrives, after a strong frontal wind, the Carpet
grass will redden and wilt overnight, this will also happen in the summer in
high temperatures and during drought. Carpet grass adapts to acidic soil and
grows best in soil with pH 4.5-5; it cannot live in salted soil. Carpet grass only
requires minimal fertilization, and cannot be over fertilized.
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Carpet grass is mainly
used in land virescence, and on land where there is a low tread rate. Because
it adapts to barren, acidic soil, and has superior seed reproduction ability,
it is an excellent soil and water conservation grass species for steep slopes
and roadsides. If it is used in garden lawns then it requires frequent mowing,
so that it is not affected by the continuous inflorescence during the growing
season, in order to maintain the smooth appearance and lawn density. Carpet
grass can also be used as forage grass.
Image source: http://www.chinabiodiversity.com/search/aspecies/adetail.shtm?cspcode=a0000000364 |
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