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In winter, the loquat tree bears a few flowers that bloom silently, and although they are not as ephemeral as the epiphany, they remain dormant in rural areas for many years.
When I was a child, I often saw some loquat flowers on the ground on the roadside, which were blown away by the wind or wet by the rain, and no one picked them up when they fell to the ground.
It is unbelievable that the current loquat flowers are no longer the "white give" in the countryside, but have become a kind of "fragrant gluttony", and the market price of dried loquat flowers is sometimes as high as 4,000 yuan per catty.
This begs the question: what is the origin of loquat flowers, and why has their price soared to such alarming levels?
The price is higher than that of gold
Some people may say, loquat costs 4,000 yuan a catty? Come on, come on, I will sell you for 400 yuan a catty, but this is not the case, the real value is the dried loquat flowers that have been processed.
To obtain dried loquat flowers, farmers need to carry out a series of collection and processing processes, including picking, washing, drying, and so on.
It is said that one pound of dried loquat flowers needs to collect nearly 100 pounds of wet loquat flowers, and if there is a problem during processing, more wet loquat flowers are needed.
Another reason why dried loquat flowers have such a high price is that they have a high value, and in addition to ornamental and nectar collection, they have many uses, mainly as a Chinese medicinal material.
The peculiarities of loquat flowers
In many supermarkets, the brightly colored loquat fruit is sold, its flesh is sweet and juicy, soft and melt-in-your-mouth, it is a unique and delicious fruit, and the loquat flower also has many special features.
We have the impression that many flowers bloom in the warm, suitable spring, but loquat flowers are a plant that blooms in winter and is very resistant to cold, they generally bloom between October and December, and the flowering period is only about 20 days.
In autumn and winter, the loquat tree will produce white or pale yellow flowers, they are clustered together, and they also emit a faint fragrance, so some people call it "winter fragrant flower", we can use it to make some aromatherapy.
As a plant native to the mainland, loquat has a very long history of planting, and in the traditional Chinese medicine work "Compendium of Materia Medica", there is a record of the effect of loquat flowers, which has the effects of moistening the lungs and relieving cough, diluting water and reducing swelling, etc., and is an extremely high-quality traditional Chinese medicinal material.
Many people don't know that loquat flowers are actually edible, the most common is to boil porridge, make wine or make tea, but it should be noted that loquat flowers must not be overeaten, and its fruit is also.
The most important thing is that both loquat seeds and loquat kernels have certain toxicity, and once taken, they may have a certain impact on the body, and they also need to be treated by medical treatment in time.
So the question is, since loquat flowers have such a high value, why don't people in the countryside grow them in large quantities?
Collecting and processing is complex
As mentioned earlier, the flowering period of loquat flowers is relatively short, and farmers need to pick the flowers on the loquat trees during this time, otherwise the quality and effect of loquat flowers may be affected.
We all know that the climate in the south is more suitable, and the terrain is also somewhat complex, there are many mountains and hills, and this is where loquat trees are often distributed, which requires pickers to overcome many difficulties and travel to many places in order to collect enough loquat flowers.
In the event of vandalism or natural disasters, the distribution of loquat flowers can change, which can also bring a lot of instability and risk to the pickers.
In addition, the method of picking loquat flowers is also more stringent, and farmers need to follow certain rules and methods, otherwise the quality of loquat flowers may be affected.
At present, science and technology are becoming more and more developed, and the picking of many plants can be achieved with the help of machinery, which greatly reduces people's workload, but loquat flowers need to rely on a lot of manpower to pick.
The first is that the machine cannot pick the complete loquat flowers at all, and the second is that the machinery is afraid of causing damage to the flowers, so the machine alone cannot complete the picking work, which requires a lot of human resources.
During the picking process of loquat flowers, the collector needs to have enough patience to gently cut the loquat branches and flowers with scissors, and then put them in a clean container to avoid exposure to the sun to maintain freshness.
After the harvest is finally completed, fresh loquat flowers are selected in the container, and only these can be made into high-quality dried loquat flowers, which can be sold at a high price.
Then it is necessary to start the cleaning of loquat flowers, it is best to re-use them with water, and no other agents can be added, so as not to affect its floral fragrance and efficacy, after removing their impurities, you can start the most important link.
After washing, the loquat flowers must not be exposed to the sun or baked, and we can put it in a cool, dry environment to avoid the loss of nutrients and activity in their bodies.
In this way, the planting of loquat flowers is quite difficult, after a series of processing, the yield of dried loquat flowers in hand is actually very low, people are naturally reluctant to plant and mobile phones, many rural people also feel that the income of collecting loquat flowers is not high, it is better to plant other crops.
When the supply of loquat flowers is much less than the demand, the price in the market is naturally high.
In fact, there is still a lot of potential and development space hidden in the loquat flower, with the progress of science and technology, what will its future be?
Talking about the future of loquat flowers
As can be seen from the above, the key factor restricting the development of loquat flowers is the difficulty of picking, if we can think of some ways to reduce the planting cost of loquat flowers, increase the planting sales and yield of loquat flowers, maybe can make loquat flowers rise and become the darling of the times.
With the deepening of scientific research and innovation, the medicinal value of loquat flowers will be fully explored and utilized, which may play a great role in preventing some diseases.
In the flower market, although loquat flowers have a place, it is not easy to preserve, and the price is not very reasonable, so its market is still relatively niche, if you can find a way to solve this problem, it will have good development prospects.
In some ancient literary works, loquat flowers are often endowed with special symbolic meanings, so loquat flowers are not only a commercial "commodity", but also carry cultural connotations.
In the flowery market, we should know how to discover those inconspicuous but infinite possibilities, and loquat flowers are a beautiful existence hovering between business and culture, waiting to be explored and discovered by those who are interested.
Perhaps the next new star of the rural industry is a loquat flower that has been forgotten by time.
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