《马可波罗游记》中记载的肃州毒草及其生态环境背景调查

Toxic grasses of Succuir recorded in《The Travels of Marco Polo》and their eco-environmental background

调查了《马可波罗游记》所记载的中国古代肃州引起牲畜中毒的毒草类型、分布特征及其发育地的生态环境背景。结果表明:在马可波罗当年旅行经过的肃州地区,狼毒Stellerachamaejasme,棘豆Oxytropis,醉马草Achnatheruminebrians3种毒草大面积分布,已泛滥成灾,造成了数万头(只)牛、羊等家畜大量中毒死亡,严重影响了当地畜牧业的发展。肃南县是毒草生态灾害的重灾区,狼毒、棘豆、醉马草在该区广泛发育。狼毒、醉马草、黄花棘豆O ochrantha发育在海拔3000m左右、降水量近300mm的祁连山中高山区草原生态环境;小花棘豆O glabra分布在降水量不到100mm、蒸发量可达2900mm、严重盐碱化的明花区走廊荒漠草原生态环境。棘豆植物分布区地理位置和牲畜中毒征状说明肃南县的棘豆毒草很可能是《马可波罗游记》中所记载的引起牲畜中毒的毒草。

In 1295, Marco Polo reported that a species of toxic grass grew in Suchow, Western China, and that his horses suffered from poisoning after being fed it. In order to discover the toxic plant and its growing place, this study investigated the species, distribution and environmental background of toxic grasses of Sunan County in Gansu Province, in the Suchow district recorded by Marco Polo. Investigation results indicate that the toxic grasses Stellera chamaejasme, Oxytropis and Achnatherum inebrians were widely distributed in the Suchow area where Marco Polo traveled by 700 years ago, and had become an ecological disaster causing the death of thousands of sheep and cattle. These toxic grasses indeed badly damaged production of the local stockbreeding. The Sunan Yugur Autonomous County is a bad disaster region due to toxic grasses. The aforementioned three species of toxic grasses grow widely in natural grassland from the Qilian Mountains to the Hexi Corridor within the Sunan Yugur Autonomous County. S. chamaejasme, A. inebrians and O. ochrantha occur in grassland at an altitude of about 3 000 m on the Qilian Mountains with precipitation less than 300 mm per year. O. glabra is distributed in the desert grassland of the Hexi Corridor, on the severely saline-alkali soil of the Minghua district, where the precipitation is less than 100 mm per year and evaporation can reach 2 900 mm per year. The distribution area, geographic position and the symptoms of poisoning in livestock of Oxytropis indicate that Oxytropis in Sunan County may well be the toxic plant that caused the selenosis of livestock recorded by Marco Polo in 1295.