A plant that looks like a napa cabbage can still bloom at minus 50 degrees, and a single plant is worth tens of thousands of yuan

Friendly reminder

Hemu Report aims to share and popularize information about various plants and their uses, for reference only. If medicinal use is needed, it is recommended to consult a professional doctor to avoid problems!

In the high-cold regions of northern China, snow remains year-round, and temperatures can reach minus several tens of degrees. Ordinary plants find it hard to survive there, but one extremely rare plant grows specifically in such extreme temperatures. This plant looks like a napa cabbage, with green leaves and pale green or white flowers. This plant is especially cold-resistant and can bloom at minus 50 degrees. Its flowers are very beautiful, and it is also an expensive Chinese medicinal herb; the highest-quality plants can sell for tens of thousands of yuan each.

This plant, which looks like a napa cabbage from a distance, is called the snow lotus. It is mainly distributed in China's Tianshan Mountains and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with the snow lotus produced in the Tianshan Mountains being the best in quality. Because the growing conditions of the snow lotus are relatively harsh, it takes about 5 years from flowering to fruiting, which inevitably means its yield will not be too high. In the 1990s, snow lotuses could still be dug up in areas below 2,000 m in altitude. Later, due to people's frenzied digging, snow lotuses are now hard to find even in areas at 3,000 m in altitude.

When people dig up snow lotuses, in pursuit of their own interests, they even dig up flower buds that have not fully bloomed, causing the quality of snow lotuses to decline year by year. Once, the flower head diameter of a snow lotus could reach more than 30 cm, but now it is only 10 cm. Nowadays, good-quality snow lotuses are rarely seen. Wild snow lotuses with flower heads over 30 cm are precious because of their scarcity, and a single plant can sell for tens of thousands, but unfortunately it is hard to buy even with money. This is because wild snow lotuses in the Tianshan Mountains were long ago listed as a second-class protected plant, and digging them up is prohibited. Most of those on the market now are snow lotuses from other regions.

The reason snow lotuses are loved by people is mainly their unique medicinal value. They grow in extremely cold places, yet they themselves are a warm tonic. Traditional Chinese medicine believes they can treat all cold syndromes. In the Supplements to the Compendium of Materia Medica, the snow lotus is regarded as "greatly hot in nature, able to replenish essence and strengthen yang." Growing in a place of great cold, yet being a thing of great heat, this fully shows how unusual it is. In addition, the snow lotus also has the effects of warming the meridians and dispelling cold, dispelling wind and dampness, and dispersing cold and resolving phlegm. In folk practice, it is often used as a tonic, soaked in alcohol or cooked in soup.

Dear readers, have you ever seen a snow lotus? Here we remind everyone not to illegally dig up snow lotuses. Please protect the snow lotuses that grow with such difficulty, and let them bloom on the beautiful snow mountains.

Text/Hemu Report, images/Internet

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