The latest course on High-yield planting techniques of Grass and Fruit

Tsaoko is ginger cardamom plants, alias grass nuts, grass fruit. Stems cluster, up to 3 meters high, the whole plant has spicy aroma, underground part slightly like ginger. Leaves oblong or oblong, 40-70 cm long, spikes unbranched, 13-18 cm long, corolla red. Capsule dense, red when ripe, brown when dry, indehiscent, oblong. The seeds are polygonal and have a strong aroma. Flowering from April to June, fruiting from September to December. It grows in tropical and subtropical shady and humid forest areas, and artificial cultivation is mainly in Yunnan. The dried fruit is used as a seasoning for Chinese food and herbal medicine. It is distributed in Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou and other places in China. Special aroma, spicy, slightly bitter, Tsaoko is a spice, Tsaoko has a special strong spicy flavor.

botanical morphology

The whole plant consists of seven parts: root, rhizome, erect stem, leaf, flower, fruit and seed.

1) Roots. The root system is divided into supporting roots (actually rhizomes) and vegetative roots. The supporting root is the transverse rhizome with thick nodes like ginger in the lower part of the main stem. Vegetative roots are pink fibrous roots growing on both sides of the supporting roots and at the top. They are 10-30 cm long and can grow to 1-2 meters long. They absorb nutrients and water.

2. Stems. The stem is divided into erect stems and rhizomes. Straight stems are produced from leaf buds on transverse rhizomes, clustered, 2.5-4 meters high, dark green, with purple at the base, cylindrical nodes, upright or growing with slope potential, generally with 12-16 leaves. Rhizomes extend underground, also known as stolons, from the base of erect stems and rhizomes to both sides of the symmetry of new stolons, support and storage of nutrients. When the rhizomes grow to a certain extent, they will shoot upwards and grow into new plants (erect stems) in the following year. The latent buds in the scales of rhizomes can germinate flower buds and leaf buds, that is, flower buds can grow into flower ears, and leaf buds can grow into erect stems.

3, leaves. Leaves 2-seriate, shortly stipitate or sessile; leaf blade oblong or oblong, ca. 55 cm long, up to 20 cm wide, apically acuminate, base tapered, entire, both surfaces smooth glabrous; leaf sheath open, phimosis.

4. Flowers. The fruit is a spikelike inflorescence, born from the rhizome, spherical, with 60-120 flowers per spike. Flowers bisexual, spiral arrangement in the flower spike axis, floret outside the purple bracts, layers wrapped, so not open flower spike appearance is purple. When open, from bottom to top in a clockwise spiral upward gradually flowering, the first flowers when the first Xie.

5 and fruit. The fruit of Tsaoko is indehiscent, fibrous, hard after drying, hammer-shaped, ovoid or subglobose, spirally dense on a rachis. Each panicle has 15-60 fruits, each fruit is 2.5-4 cm long, 1.4-2 cm in diameter, its part has a short fruit stalk, the young fruit is bright red, purple red when mature, brown after baking, not dehiscent, with tenacity and hard, there are relatively neat straight fibers.

6, seeds. Each fruit contains 20-66 seeds. The seeds are polygonal, about 0.4-0.7 cm long and 0.3-0.5 cm wide, and each seed particle is surrounded by a white spongy membrane. The seeds are white and have a strong spicy fragrance. The average 1000-grain weight is 120-140 grams, and there are about 6000-7000 seeds per kilogram of fresh seeds.

The use of grass fruit

1. Food value

Tsaoko is a kind of spice, which is indispensable for the daily life of the people in urban and rural areas of our country. Tsaoko has a special strong spicy flavor, can remove the fishy smell, stimulate appetite, is the best in cooking condiments, known as the food seasoning "one of the five spices." When stewing beef and mutton, put some grass fruit, both fragrant and delicious, but also to avoid odor, therefore, grass fruit has always been a tight commodity. Especially in Xinjiang, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Xizang, Shaanxi and other areas where beef and mutton are often eaten, it is more popular.

2. Medicinal value

Tsaoko taste spicy warm, warm in the stomach, digestion Shunqi, dispel cold and damp function, and can hangover poison, to bad breath. Fruit medicine can treat pain in the heart, food accumulation, diarrhea, vomiting, poor appetite, cough sputum, chest fullness abdominal distension and other diseases. The medicinal functions of Tsaoko are recorded in ancient books such as "Materia Medica Seeking the Origin" and "Compendium of Materia Medica."

3. Ecological value

Because the living environment of tsaoko is in the mountain depression under the evergreen broad-leaved forest, it does not compete with other crops for land, but also can make full use of forest resources, protect evergreen broad-leaved forest, conserve water source, protect water and soil, and create a good ecological environment for stable and high yield of agriculture.

4. Economic value

Cultivation of grass fruit has many benefits. It can blossom and bear fruit after three years of planting. After seven years, it enters the peak fruit period. It can bear fruit continuously for about 20 years. Generally, it can grow for decades. In addition, its management is relatively extensive and its investment is low.