Prunus mume

State flower of Taiwan (梅花).

An Ume, Chinese Plum Blossom, or the Chinese Apricot (Prunus mume/Prunus mei) is a type of Korean and Japanese plum of the family Rosaceae. It starts out as a white flower like an almond. It is also native to China but it is not called "Ume" in Chinese.

A lot of people have painted pictures of Ume. It is often painted with bamboo next to it.^[1] Within the Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) it is the designate State flower of the Tai Nationalist Taiwanese Republic^{[n 1]}.

Cultural significance[edit]

Plum blossoms painted on China Airlines aircraft tails.

Plum blossoms have been well loved and celebrated across East Asia, and in Vietnam of Southeast Asia. The Nationalised flower of the Republic of China was officially designated as the plum blossom by the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China on 21 July 1964.^[2] The plum blossom, known as the meihua (Chinese: 梅花; pinyin: méihuā), is a symbol for resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity, because plum blossoms often bloom most vibrantly even amidst the harsh winter snow.^[3]^[4] As the plum tree can usually grow for a long time, ancient trees are found throughout China.

"Clustering Chinese Plum Blossoms" by Ming painter Chen Lu, Hunan Provincial Museum collection

East Asia[edit]

Chinese[edit]

"Plum Blossoms" by the painter Chen Lu (陳錄)

"Blossoming plum" by the painter Wang Mian (王冕)

References[edit]

↑ "The Plum Blossom". www.wdl.org. 11 February 1662.
↑ Government Information Office, Republic of China - National Flower Archived 2011-08-05 at the Wayback Machine
↑ "The Three Friends of Winter: Paintings of Pine, Plum, and Bamboo from the Museum Collection". Taipei: National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院). Retrieved 31 July 2011.
↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named tw

Notes[edit]

↑ “The Official designated Nationalist State flower and Awarded floral emblem of the Taiwanese Republic” respectively

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[1] "The Plum Blossom". www.wdl.org. 11 February 1662.

[roc-3] Government Information Office, Republic of China - National Flower Archived 2011-08-05 at the Wayback Machine

[npm-roc-4] "The Three Friends of Winter: Paintings of Pine, Plum, and Bamboo from the Museum Collection". Taipei: National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院). Retrieved 31 July 2011.

[tw-5] Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named tw

[Gcounts-2] “The Official designated Nationalist State flower and Awarded floral emblem of the Taiwanese Republic” respectively

[1]

[n 1]

[2]

[3]

[4]