This common plant has edible stems, leaves, and fruit; grown in a pot as bonsai, it is both beautiful and precious

A common plant in rural areas, it can be grown in a pot as bonsai, its stems, leaves, and fruit are edible, and it has great and precious value; it is beautiful

In China's rural areas there are many plants; some of these plants grow very tall, some grow very short, and some grow neither tall nor short. We call this kind a small shrub. There is one kind of small shrub that can be eaten, can be used as a snack, and can also be used as a staple food; in the years when there was no grain, it even saved many people.

It is distributed in Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi and other provinces and regions in China. It likes to grow in some relatively barren and relatively dry places. Of course, many ditches and streams among piles of stones also have their presence. They do not have high requirements for soil, but they cannot grow below zero degrees. They like strong light, so they generally live in open areas, or on cliffs.

Its fruit is nearly spherical, with a diameter of about 5 mm, orange-red or dark red. It is very beautiful and very suitable for potting or bonsai. The flowering period is March to May, and the fruiting period is August to November. It has a nice name: firethorn (Pyracantha).

Firethorn is an evergreen shrub or small tree, with a height that can grow to about 3 m. Its tree form is graceful; in summer it has abundant flowers, and in autumn it has red fruit. The fruiting period is very long, making it very good and very beautiful as bonsai.

Firethorn is not one of those vase plants that look good but are useless; it has high medicinal value. Its fruit: removes food stagnation and stops dysentery, invigorates blood and stops bleeding. It can be used for our usual indigestion, enteritis, dysentery, infantile malnutrition, abnormal uterine bleeding, leukorrhea, postpartum abdominal pain and other symptoms. Firethorn root: has the effect of clearing heat and cooling blood. It is used for consumptive disease with steaming bone and tidal fever, hepatitis, traumatic injury, muscle and bone pain, waist pain, abnormal uterine bleeding, leukorrhea, irregular menstruation, vomiting blood, and bloody stool. Leaves: clear heat and detoxify. Applied externally to treat sores, ulcers, swelling and toxins. From this it can be seen that firethorn is a precious medicinal material, of great value and with many effects. Do not destroy it when you see it.

The red fruit contains active substances that inhibit dental caries and has positive significance for human tooth prevention and treatment, so its fruit is also a high-quality raw material for making toothpaste. Firethorn can be arranged in spherical form; methods such as combined planting, branch cutting, branch spreading, and pruning and shaping can be adopted, planting it in a well-spaced and orderly way on lawns, and dotting it in the depths of courtyards. The bright red firethorn fruit gives people a warm feeling in the cold winter. As a plant for matching scenery in scenic woodlands, firethorn can embody natural wild charm.

Firethorn can be a tree full of red fruit from autumn and winter to spring, giving people a festive feeling. It is very suitable for giving to others in the form of bonsai during festivals and New Year holidays, or for placing in a courtyard, pleasing to the eye. Firethorn is relatively easy to grow, and pruning and tidying its shape are not very difficult, so it is suitable for ordinary novice bonsai enthusiasts to grow. Have you seen firethorn in rural areas?