What is a grass fruit?

The grass and fruit is perennial herb, 2-2.5m high. The root system branches to support the root (actually the stem) and the vegetative root. The so-called supporting root is that the lower part of the main stem is as hypertrophic as ginger, coarse and nodular across the rhizome. Vegetative roots grow on both sides of the supporting roots and the tip of the pink report, into the soil 10ml 30cm, can grow to 1Mel 2m long, play the role of absorbing nutrients and water.

The whole plant of grass and fruit has a spicy smell. The base of the stem is dilated and the diameter is up to 6cm. The stem is divided into erect stem and rhizome. The erect stem is produced from the leaf buds on the transverse rhizome, tufted, up to 2.5 m high, dark green, with purplish red at the base, yellowish fleshy inside, cylindrical jointed, erect or growing with the slope, and generally has 12 leaves and 16 leaves. The rhizome extends prostrate underground, also known as stolon, and produces new stolons symmetrically from the expansion of the base of the erect stem and the internodes of the rhizome to both sides. There are about 11 stolons, with a depth of 10 ~ 20 cm, a length of 30 ~ 80 cm and a thickness of 2 ~ 3 cm, which play the role of supporting and storing nutrients. When the rhizome grows to a certain extent, it will pull out new buds upward and grow into a new plant (erect stem) the following year. The latent buds in the scales on the rhizome can sprout flower buds and leaf buds, that is, flower buds can grow into spikes, leaf buds can grow into erect stems, and the similar erect stem forest will naturally wither after flowering and fruiting.

Leaves of grass fruit are 2-row, shortly stipitate or sessile; leaf blade long-elliptic or narrowly oblong, ca. 55 cm long and 20 cm wide, apex acuminate, base attenuate, entire, margin to membranous, leaves smooth glabrous on both surfaces; leaf sheath open, phimosis, ligule 0.8 in length, ligule purplish, leaf sheath striate, scape drawn from stem base, long acuminate, base cuneate, entire, both surfaces glabrous. The grass and fruit is a spike, which grows from the rhizome and is spherical in shape, with 60ml and 120 flowers per panicle. The flowers are bisexual, spirally arranged on the spike axis, and the florets are covered with purplish red bracts, so the appearance of the unopened spike is purplish red. When it is open, it will gradually blossom in a clockwise spiral from the bottom up, and the flowers that bloom first will give thanks first. Total flower stably ca. 18 cm, densely fuchsia bracts, bracts elliptic apex gradually pointed, 5.5-9.5 cm long, 2.5-3.5 cm wide, apex gradually lost, herbaceous. Each floret in the bract is covered with a bracteole, bracteoles purplish red glabrous needle, 3.5 cm long, 0.8 cm wide, apex acuminate, sepal tubular, 2.5 cm long, 0.7 cm wide, one side split to middle, apex bicentate, Corolla golden yellow, Corolla tube ca. 3 cm long, long elliptic, lip elliptic, ca. 3.5 cm long, 0.4 cm wide, apex fissured, margin undulate. The midvein is fleshy, with two crimson stripes, the anther is 1.8 cm long, the middle lobe of the anther is fan-shaped, both lobes are slightly narrower, with two drugs, one pistil, located in the upper part of the stamen locule, the stigma is elliptic, the middle is retuse, the style is 4rel 4.5 cm long, the ovary is inferior, globose, three-loculed, ovules are numerous, and there are two nectaries at the top of the ovary, ca. 0.5 cm long, yellowish.

The fruit of grass fruit is an indehiscent capsule, which is rich in fiber and has a hard texture when dried. The fruit is hammer-shaped, ovoid or subglobose, spirally dense on a rachis. There are 60 fruits per ear, each fruit is 2.5 Mel 4 cm long and 1.4 Mel 2 cm in diameter, its part has a short fruit stalk, the young fruit is bright red, it is fuchsia when ripe, it is brown after baking, it does not crack, the top is narrow and thick-edged, with Bremsstrahlung and hard, with relatively neat straight fiber.

There are 66 seeds in the fruit of each grass fruit. The seeds are polygonal, about 0.4 ~ 0.7 cm long and 0.3 ~ 0.5 cm wide. Each seed grain is surrounded by a white spongy film. Kind of kernel white, with strong fragrance and spicy taste. The average 1000-grain weight is 120ml 140g, and there are about 6000Mel 7,000 fresh seeds per kilogram.

The flowering period of grass fruit is from April to June and the fruiting period is from September to December.