------Program code: NS-080825-03362 (what's this?)
Source: CCTV.com
08-25-2008 10:50
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The thick layers of wax on the surface of the leaves can keep the water out. Summer in the desert always heralds the monsoon.
The female tree is pregnant.
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This euphrates poplar has been living in the Taklamakan Desert for nearly two hundred years. Even though it has got used to the strong sunlight, it still suffers every day.
The surface temperature in the afternoon reaches nearly 80℃. The sand and sun conspire to create a huge oven. The poplar can reduce its body temperature through respiration, just like animals do. However, every breath it takes will use some water and dry its body still further.
The poplar stops breathing and goes through the hottest hour of the day in a state of dormancy.
Once the Tarim River flowed beside the female tree, but that was 100 years ago
As the sun sets behind the floating dust, the temperature drops. But the female tree doesn’t dare rest. Some invisible drops of dew have formed among the sand because of the intense drop in temperature. The roots of the female tree spread out beneath the sand. Every cell is trying to absorb the dew.
Tomorrow, the sun will be even more intense.
The iguana, nicknamed the “living dinosaur” because of its great age, absorbs heat from the sun to increase its body temperature. This is its favourite time of the year. By absorbing the solar energy through its scales, the iguana gradually regains its senses and speed. But on a hot summer’s day like this, it can only hide at the top of the poplar.
The tall tree with the single branch needs sunlight. But it needs water even more.
The leaves at the treetop are broad and thick, which make it easy to absorb the sunlight needed to produce energy for life; below, the tree grows thin and the leaves are smaller, which reduces evaporation and consumption.
The euphrates poplar grows leaves of different breadths to help it cope with its environment. Because of this it is known as a “diversiform-leaved poplar”.
The rainfall still hasn’t come. So the wheat is hardly worth harvesting. But the old man, Sima Yi, needs it to feed his sheep in case there is no grass.
While the water in the soil is reduced because of the intense evaporation, the level of alkalinity is getting higher.
The tall tree with the single branch endeavours to absorb every drop of water from the soil. But the water now contains large amounts of salt and alkali.
The more water it absorbs, the more salt and alkali it stores.
The poplar must discharge the potentially lethal salt and alkali. The liquid is called by the locals the “tears of the euphrates poplar”.
The alkalinity and salt contained in a poplar tear make it rather like a human tear.
The tears of the euphrates poplar, which are 70% alkali, coagulate on the bark. Here the locals make it into a special kind of noodle, called Kui Maiqi.
The people living in the desert have learned to cope with the vagaries of the four seasons, just as the euphrates poplars have.
It’s been five months since the poplar bloomed. Seeds hang from the branches of the female tree, awaiting their opportunity.
The hot season persists, but the wind, carrying pollen from the northeast, has changed direction. It is now carrying the seeds back where the pollen originally came from.
The prime time for reproduction has passed. But the female tree is still bearing hundreds of millions of seeds.
The pre-matured seeds are ready to set off.
Without its mother to nurture it, the seed is weakening. Within seven days it will have lost half its vitality. A month later, it will meet its end.
The seed has found a large river, an old channel in the Tarim River. But there’s no water in it.
With the wind’s erosion, the riverbed has already been formed into ridges. The original river mud has become fine dust, mixed with the quicksand.
The wind decides the direction in which the seed flies.
Even the shortest rest is likely to end its journey, or rather, its life.
The hot air has lifted. It was halted by the wind flow that was spurred by energy from the sun.
It’s the first night after the seed left its mother. In the desert cold, it’s losing the water in its body with every passing minute.
Editor:Yang
