Nutmeg is so red it's bewitching - what does it have to do with the "cardamom years"?

Perhaps the first time you saw a picture of nutmeg hanging on a tree was because of"Du Mu, you hooligan"meme. But this is a misunderstanding: it started when someone attached a picture of nutmeg to the "cardamom" in the phrase "cardamom years." The cardamom here comes from Du Mu's poem line "cardamom tips in early February," and actually refers to plants of the ginger family, genus Alpinia; the poetdescribed a girl of twelve or thirteen as the delicate, dew-drenched white flower buds at the tips of cardamom.

At first, the name "cardamom" belonged exclusively to Alpinia plants such as Alpinia hainanensis and shell ginger (Alpinia zerumbet), and later other aromatic plants in the ginger family also came to be collectively called "cardamom," such as white cardamom (Amomum testaceum) and green cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum).

Three spices called "cardamom" belong to different genera. Image: Yu Tianyi

Finally, in Flora of China, the name "cardamom" was given to the genus Amomum, to which small cardamom and white cardamom belong.NutmegThis name also comes from "cardamom," perhaps because nutmeg's flavor is similar to that of cardamom.

Nutmeg's inconspicuous small flowers. Image: Yu Tianyi

Red "devil's claws," soul-stirring

The family Myristicaceae, to which nutmeg belongs, is a family distributed almost entirely in the tropics, and very few species are found in China.

Many genera in Myristicaceae have peculiar aril structures; when the fruit ripens, the pericarp splits open, revealing the brightly colored aril, which replaces the fruit in attracting birds to come and feast.Birds can digest the aril, but have difficulty digesting the hard seed, and in this way Myristicaceae plants spread their seeds far away.

Nutmeg, fruit not fully ripe. Image: Yu Tianyi

A split nutmeg fruit. Image: W.A. Djatmiko / wikimedia

In Horsfieldia and Knema plants, the aril completely surrounds the seed, while Myristica has a very specialred, torn arilthat looks like a pair of claws tightly gripping the seed kerneldevil's claws; if you pull the "devil's claws" apart, you can also see the grooves it leaves on the seed.

The red, crisscrossing aril of nutmeg wraps around the seed. Image: AntanO / wikim

One plant, two spices

The split fruit of nutmeg is visually striking, and the red "devil's claws" leave a deep impression; indeed, the nutmeg fruit has an irresistible bewitching quality that inadvertently helped drive the course of human history.

Traditional European spices were mainly various herbs, and the aromas of most herbs are easily volatile; after long marinating or cooking, many herbs cannot maintain a rich aroma. Therefore, in Europe,nutmeg and several other spices from tropical Asia (such as pepper) seemed especially precious。

After grinding, nutmeg's aroma is further released. Image: Jorge Barrios / wikimedia

However,at that time Asian spices such as nutmeg were monopolized by Arabs, forcing Europeans to develop new routes, which was also the beginning of the Age of Discovery that pushed the world into one interconnected whole. The Maluku Islands (now part of Indonesia), the sole place of origin of the nutmeg species, were therefore also called"the Spice Islands". For more on the great significance of nutmeg to human history, you can read what Teacher Gu Yourong wrote two years ago inthis article。

The nutmeg fruit has two parts that can be made into spices; after the seed is dried it is callednutmeg, while the "devil's claw"-like aril, after drying, is calledmace. The aril needs about 10 to 14 days of drying, during which the vivid red gradually turns orange or brown, while the seed takes much longer to dry than the aril, requiring six to eight weeks.

Bright red fresh aril and dried aril. Image: Atudu & Jastrow / wikimedia

The flavor of nutmeg seed (nutmeg), from personal testing, resembles pine resin and camphor tree, but is more gentle.Cutting the seed open reveals a very beautiful pattern, somewhat similar to the seed of areca nut. The flavor of the dried aril (mace) is similar to nutmeg,nutmeg's flavor is sweeter, while mace's flavor is lighter. Both can be used whole, though more commonly they are ground into powder and added to desserts or dishes.

A cut-open nutmeg seed shows a pattern similar to that of areca nut. Image: Yu Tianyi

Nutmeg is an extremely commonly used spice in Southeast Asia. Although China introduced nutmeg from Southeast Asia very early, it never received much attention, being only a common braising spice,one of the spices in "thirteen-spice powder". After Europeans brought nutmeg to the West, nutmeg was not only used to cure meat, but also used to make some strange desserts, such as rice pudding.

Rice pudding with cream and spices - Calendar Girl, who just had her wisdom teeth out, is in no position to enjoy it. Image: sprinklesomesugar.com

That touch of red is the rarest of all

Very few Myristica plants are distributed in China, onlyYunnan nutmeg(Myristica yunnanensis), distributed in southern Yunnan, as well asLanyu nutmeg(Myristica ceylanicavar.cagayanensis) andred-headed nutmeg（Myristica ellipticavar.simiarum）。

distributed on Lanyu, Taiwan, China. The English edition of Flora of China (Flora of China) considers both Lanyu nutmeg and red-headed nutmeg to be exotic species brought by humans from the Philippines to Lanyu for cultivation. The book "Poisu Inawan - The Ethnobotany of the Tao People of Lanyu" records Lanyu nutmeg as native to Lanyu and Green Island; Lanyu nutmeg is called Gago on Lanyu, meaning "lamp oil for lighting fires," because its seeds are rich in oil and are used to press oil for lamps and to make dyes.

Lanyu nutmeg, more robust than nutmeg. Image: Yu Tianyi

Myristica plants are flowering and fruiting most of the time, but the fruits have a concentrated ripening period,so that vivid touch of red cannot be seen in all four seasons. I once went in winter to the Hainan Xinglong Southern Medicinal Plant Garden (Xinglong Tropical Medicinal Botanical Garden) and saw many nutmeg plants, yet not a single split fruit.

That tiny male flower of Lanyu nutmeg. Image: Yu Tianyi

I once went to Taiwan, China twice in summer to look for Lanyu nutmeg, and always missed seeing the split fruit; the third time, in May on Lanyu, I finally saw the vivid aril of Lanyu nutmeg.

When the fruit has just split open, the aril of Lanyu nutmeg shows its most vivid red; afterward the aril and fruit fall,and after falling to the ground the aril, like that of nutmeg, gradually loses its vivid color. The difference is that the aril of Lanyu nutmeg turns dark red.

On the right is a Lanyu nutmeg that has just fallen after splitting, and on the left you can see that the aril has become dull after falling for some time. Image: Yu Tianyi

The seeds of Myristica plants are somewhat toxic to animals, which can prevent animals from gnawing on the seeds while eating the aril.

When used as a spice, because the dosage is small, the seed kernel of nutmeg can be said to be almost non-toxic. The myristicin and elemicin in the seed have anesthetic and hallucinogenic effects, and ifconsumed in large doses, poisoning is possible。

This article is the 174th article of Year 4 of the Species Calendar, from Species Calendar author @Yu Tianyi.

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Myristicaceae Horsfieldia kingii