Is Dalat the Source of Jade Vine?
Some people think that Jade vine originated in Dalat and was planted in for the first time by the French. We can verify the accuracy of this information, according to a famous agricultural engineer of the early 60s, who saw this kind of flower for the first time in at the Royal Garden of Dalat’s.
The agricultural engineer recounted: “ in 1962, professor Ton That Trinh who was the Minister of Agriculture Ministry nominated me to go to Dalat to work in the Royal garden for the president who deeply loved flowers. Just after arriving there, I started to take notes in order to make a flower collection of the garden. I wrote in my notebook the name of Jade vine, and in my opinion Jade vine was the unique of the country at that time”.
Jade vine has another name, “festoon marble”
The scientific name of Jade vine is Strongylondonmacrobotry L, appertain of the legume wings (Papllionnaceae). The primary colour of marble is sapphire, but following the people who have a lots of experience in planting flowers in Dalat, the color of this flower is certain to change within a day. Specifically, it has sky-blue colour in the morning, the colour turns to blue in the middle of the day and to green in the afternoon. According to this agricultural engineer, nobody knows where “ this unique jade vine of the country” in came from at that time. But for his forecast, this unique creeper woody flower has been brought from or (the original homeland of this flower) to during the time when the French discovered Dalat and began to build the residence buildings here. It was only planted in the Royal garden of the presidential palace (Bourgery Dalat has changed to the name Presidential palace already). Many elders in Dalat said that :“ in those days – the 60s, to have a bed of Jade vine at home is better than to have gold”. And the famous agricultural engineer in Dalat is confidence: “ It was difficult taking care of the Royal garden; but in return, I also became a lover of flowers. In particular, I could see the unique Jade vine at that time, and would know I did my job very well. Day by day, I recognized that I became more and more heavily indebted with flowers, especially with the flowers in Dalat, such as Jade vine in presidential palace”. He got the “trouble” because he not only tried to take good care of the Jade vine but also tried to “latent” propagate this kind of flower for Dalat ( agricultural engineer himself also brought to DaLat many kinds of valuable and rare flowers). Furthermore, when the authoritative official knew that there was Jade vine in the , they required him to propagate this flower for them. That put this agricultural engineer into a difficult situation.
After 1975, the Jade vine became a popular flower in many areas of the country. Dalat people lost the “exclusive ownership” of Jade vine in . However, everybody feels happy when they know that all the Jade vine in the country these days is a descendant of the unique Jade vine in from the past.
By Khac Dung
