In the sunny slopes, ditch edges and valley shrublands in the north and south of China, there is a kind of hanging hook genus plant, which is characterized by single leaves, white flowers, red after maturity, people often call raspberries, March bubbles, April bubbles, etc., with edible and medicinal value. Today I will talk about some of the situations of this plant.
First, the botanical characteristics of raspberries
1. Name and classification status
Raspberry is the official middle name, this name comes from the "North China Economic Plant Chronicle"; there are many aliases, in Guizhou called raspberries, mountain throwers, milk bubbles, sprinkler bubbles, etc.; in Hunan called March bubbles, April bubbles, dragon boat bubbles; in Shaanxi called barley bubbles, bubble thorns; in Fujian called thorn gourds, steamed bun pineapples, high foot waves, etc.; in plant taxonomy belongs to the rosaceae family hanging hook genus upright shrubs.
2, distribution and growth environment
Raspberries are distributed everywhere in China except northeast, Qinghai, Xinjiang and Tibet; they usually grow on sunny slopes, streams, valleys, wastelands, and wet places in shrublands.
3, appearance characteristics
The first is an upright shrub with a height of less than 3 meters, with skin spines on the branches and soft hairs on the young branches.
The second is single-leaf alternate, the leaves are ovate or ovate lanceolate, 5-12 cm long, the apex is tapering, the base is slightly heart-shaped, occasionally truncated or rounded, the leaf edge is not split or 3 lobes, the leaves of the general sterile branches are 3 lobes, the leaf edges have irregular sharp serrations or heavy serrations, the basal veins are three out, the petiole is 1-2 cm long, and there are small skin spines.
The third is that the flowers grow alone or in small numbers on short branches, the flower diameter is up to 3 cm, the corolla is white, and it blooms in February and March;
The fruit is nearly spherical or ovoid, about 1.2 cm in diameter, reddish yellow or red when ripe, densely hairy, and ripens in April to June.
Second, the main use of raspberries
First, its ripe fruit has a sweet taste, containing sugars, malic acid, citric acid, vitamin C and other nutrients, which can be eaten raw, and can also be used to make jams and wine.
Second, its fruit, root (taste slightly bitter, spicy, flat), leaves can be used in medicine; folk often use unripe fruit as a substitute for raspberry, belongs to the warm kidney yang medicine, its taste is slightly sweet, acidic, warm, with kidney solidification, yang shrinkage function; modern medical research shows that raspberries have the effect of clearing heat and throat, detoxification, swelling, sores, etc.; mainly contain coumarin, tea polyphenols, tannin, alkaloids, flavonoids and other active ingredients. Please follow your doctor's advice when using medicines.
Third, its root bark, stem bark, and leaves can be extracted from quercetin.