Where is Eucommia ulmoides produced? An introduction to the latest distribution of its main producing areas
Eucommia ulmoides is also known as Silian bark, silk-cotton bark, cotton-tree bark, etc. It is a deciduous tree plant of the genus Eucommia in the family Eucommiaceae. Its dried bark, used as medicine, has the effects of tonifying the liver and kidneys, strengthening sinews and bones, regulating the Chong and Ren meridians, and securing the meridians and preventing miscarriage. It can treat waist and leg pain or soreness, weakness and lack of strength caused by kidney yang deficiency, insecure fetus caused by liver qi deficiency, damp itching of the scrotum and other conditions. It was listed as a top-grade medicine in the Shennong Bencao Jing. Now let us take a look at where Eucommia ulmoides is produced!
Where is Eucommia ulmoides produced?
Eucommia ulmoides is a species endemic to China and is now widely cultivated in various places. It is distributed in Shaanxi, Gansu, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan, Anhui, Shaanxi, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Zhejiang and other places. Zhangjiajie is the world's largest producing area of wild Eucommia ulmoides. In Jiangsu, large amounts of artificially cultivated Eucommia ulmoides are grown in a national-level forestry base, and it has also been introduced to botanical gardens in Europe and the United States. It is called the “Chinese rubber tree”, although it has no kinship whatsoever with the rubber tree.
The growing environment of Eucommia ulmoides
Eucommia ulmoides prefers a warm, humid climate and a sunny environment. It can withstand severe cold, and mature plants can survive normally at -30℃. It can be cultivated in most parts of China and has strong adaptability. It has no strict requirements for soil, but loam with deep soil layers that is loose, fertile, moist and well-drained is most suitable. The growth rate of the Eucommia ulmoides tree is relatively slow in its youth. Its fast-growing period occurs from 7 to 20 years, and after 20 years the growth rate decreases year by year. After 50 years, height growth basically stops and the plant naturally withers.
China's “Hometowns of Eucommia ulmoides”
1. Zhangjiajie: Thanks to the special geographical environment of Zhangjiajie in Hunan, Eucommia ulmoides survived in the Wuling Mountains area, thus making it the world's largest producing area of wild Eucommia ulmoides to date. Cili County in Zhangjiajie, as China's largest wild Eucommia ulmoides forest base, has long enjoyed the reputation of “the mysterious 30 degrees north latitude, China's hometown of Eucommia ulmoides”.
2. Wangcang County: Wangcang County in Sichuan is located in the Qinba mountainous area and has long been known as a “forest-shaded medicinal hometown”. Its resources of Chinese medicinal materials are very rich, and in 1984 it was listed as a “county-level production base for Chinese medicinal materials in Sichuan Province”. It was awarded the title of “China's Hometown of Eucommia ulmoides for Famous, Special and Superior Economic Forests” by the State Forestry Administration. Its main wild medicinal materials include more than 300 kinds such as Gastrodia elata, Eucommia ulmoides and Phellodendron amurense.
3. Xiangshui County: As early as the 1980s, Qitao Township in Xiangshui County, Jiangsu, was famous both inside and outside the province for planting the Chinese medicinal material Eucommia ulmoides. In the mid-1990s, Qitao Township established the Xiangshui Eucommia Tea Factory. Its “Tingquan brand” bagged health tea won the title of Yancheng Famous Brand Product in 1999 and was a product consumers could trust. The Eucommia tea it produced sold well domestically and was exported to Japan, South Korea and other countries. Planting the Chinese medicinal material Eucommia ulmoides has become one of the important ways for farmers in the township to increase their income.
4. Lueyang County: Lueyang County in southern Shaanxi is an original producing area and suitable growing area for Eucommia ulmoides. It is generally believed that Eucommia ulmoides originated in the Qinling Mountains at the junction of Shaanxi, Gansu and Sichuan provinces. Because it is located in the Qinba mountainous area, where geographical transportation is underdeveloped, the germplasm resources of many species have been relatively well preserved, and it is also one of China's famous “hometowns of Eucommia ulmoides”.