A fruit whose peel and pit can both be eaten is a treasure from head to toe; its seeds sprout as soon as they touch soil, and a potted plant can hang heavy with fruit on every branch.

This fruit is called wampee, and July and August are exactly when it ripens. Wampee is unlike ordinary fruit: you can eat not only the flesh but also the peel and the pit, the whole fruit is edible, and it is rich in nutrients, a treasure from head to toe.

Wampee fruits generally come in sweet wampee, sour wampee and bitter wampee, but what people usually eat is sweet wampee, which is delicious with little sourness; sour wampee is strongly sour, and bitter wampee tastes bitter and is hard to eat, but has the best medicinal effects.

When eating wampee, after washing it clean, put a whole fruit directly into your mouth, chew the flesh, peel and pit all together, and swallow it all, pulp and juice alike; the taste is sweet and sour, it is rich in nutrients, and it also has pharmacological effects.

Wampee is a fruit of southern China, very rich in nutrients, containing abundant vitamin C, organic acids and pectin; both the peel and the pit can be used as medicine, with effects of aiding digestion and resolving phlegm and regulating qi, used for indigestion, cough and asthma, and it can also help prevent and treat influenza.

Not only is the wampee fruit a treasure, its bark is also a Chinese herbal medicine; after stripping the bark, removing the coarse outer layer and drying it in the sun, the dried bark is what we commonly call Sichuan corktree bark (Phellodendron chinense); saying it is a treasure from head to toe is not an exaggeration at all.

The wampee tree, with all these benefits, can also be grown in pots; it can be planted in all four seasons, and after fruiting the yield is relatively high, enough to cover the branches, and care after planting is also very simple.

Key points for growing wampee in pots

Wampee has low requirements for soil; ordinary garden soil can keep it alive, but to bear more fruit, it is best to use sandy loam with good drainage, fertile soil and a deep soil layer.

Sow wampee seeds in fertile, loose soil, water thoroughly, and at a temperature of 25°C-30°C they will sprout in about 12 days. If you use a seedling directly for potting, you can choose a short-stemmed variety, and require one with lush branches and leaves, free of pests and diseases, and a good variety suited to local cultivation.

The wampee tree likes a warm, humid environment; the suitable temperature is above 20°C, the lowest temperature must not fall below -0°C, and its cold tolerance is not especially strong.

For a potted wampee tree, there must be plenty of sunlight, at least 6 hours of light every day; this way not only is the yield high, but the quality is good and the plant grows robustly.

The wampee tree is an evergreen fruit tree, grows fast, flowers and fruits abundantly, and needs relatively large amounts of water; moreover, it also likes a humid environment, so usually water it when the soil is dry and let it dry between waterings, keeping the potting soil mainly slightly moist and best not waterlogged.