Which provinces are the main wood ear mushroom producing areas distributed across? Which place is the most famous?
China is the main producer of wood ear mushrooms, with producing areas mainly distributed across Jilin, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hubei, Shaanxi and Zhejiang, among other places. Of these, Hailin City and Dongning County in the Mudanjiang area of Heilongjiang Province, and Huangsongdian Town in Jiaohe County, Jilin Province, are China's largest black wood ear mushroom bases.
Wood ear mushrooms grow on the decaying wood of more than 120 species of broadleaf trees, including oak, poplar, banyan and pagoda tree, either singly or in clusters. In mycological classification, they belong to the class Basidiomycetes, order Auriculariales, family Auriculariaceae. There are 9 species in China; Heilongjiang has all 8 existing varieties, Yunnan currently has 7 species, and Lushi County in Henan has one species. Wild black wood ear mushrooms are mainly distributed in the Greater and Lesser Khingan forest regions, the Qinba Mountains and the Funiu Mountains. Fang County and Suizhou in Hubei; Qingchuan in Sichuan; Wenshan, Honghe, Baoshan, Dehong, Lijiang, Dali, Xishuangbanna and Qujing in Yunnan; and Lushi County in Henan Province are China's wood ear mushroom producing areas.
People think of Northeast China, where the forest area is large, timber resources are abundant and wood ear mushroom yields are high; with ample sunshine and large temperature differences between day and night, the wood ear mushrooms produced there are thick and soft, full of elasticity, and not only taste good but are also highly nutritious.
Black wood ear mushroom is a famous mountain delicacy that can be eaten, used as medicine and taken as a tonic. Chinese people never tire of it on the dining table, and it has the reputation of being the "meat among vegetables"; in the world it is called the "black treasure of Chinese cuisine." The cultivation method of black wood ear mushrooms is considered unsurpassed in the history of world agronomy, horticulture and mushroom cultivation.
By colour, wood ear mushrooms are divided into white wood ear and black wood ear; by cultivation, they are divided into wild and artificially cultivated types. The vast majority sold on the market are artificially cultivated; wild black wood ear mushrooms are precious and rare, with Changbai Mountain black wood ear being the most famous.