Food plants of China

929 Pages·21.952 MB·English

by  Shiu-ying Hu

Food Plants of
CHINA
Shiu-ying Hu
Botanist, Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University
Honorary Professor of Chinese Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
The Chinese University Press
72 84 96 108
LOCALITIES OF SHIU-YING HU’S BOTANICAL ACTIVITIES IN CHINA
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Map. A map of China showing the localities from
where the author carried out her botanical activites
in China. The localities are indicated by numbers
designed to be read from north to south and east to
west. The localities are:
(1) Long White (36) Xindu and Pixian
Mountain (small towns too
(2) Harbin close to be seperated)
(3) Changchun (37) Pengxian
(4) Shenyang (38) Guanxian
(5) AnShan (39) Maoxian
(6) Dalian (40) Wenchuan
(7) Beijing (41) Lifan
(8) Tianjin (42) Chongqing
(9) Datong (43) Beipei
(10) Yin Shan (44) Ziliujing
(11) Hohhot (45) Luo Shan
(12) Yinchuan (46) Omei Mountains
(13) Ala Shan (Emei Mountains)
(14) Jinan (47) Dragon Pool
(15) Lianyun Harbor (48) Ya-an
(16) Xuzhou (49) Tianchuan
(17) Zhengzhou (50) Muping (Baoxing)

(18) Luoyang (51) Taipei
(19) Xi-an (52) Yilan
(20) Lanzhou (53) Sun Moon Lake
SHANXI
(21) Xining (54) Shantou (Swatow)
~ew
(22) Koko Nor (55) Loh Fau Shan
(23) Shanghai (Luofu Shan)
(24) Suzhou (56) Conghua
(25) Yangzhou (57) Hong Kong
(26) Nanjing (58) Guangzhou
(27) Hefei (Canton)
(28) Hangzhou (59) Wuzhou
(29) Lu Shan (60) Guilin
(30) Nanchang (61) Liuzhou
(31) QOizhou (62) Nanning
(32) Wuhan (63) Kunming
(33) Yichang (64) Simao
(34) Wanxian (65) Xishuangbanna
(35) Chengdu
Black triangles and dots represent areas of
intensive studies with residence lasted for eight or
more years. The white triangles and dots represent
localities for shorter botanizations. The names of
mountains (Ala Shan, An Shan, Loh Fau Shan, Long
White Mountain, Lu Shan, Luo Shan, and Omei
Mountains) and lakes (Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan,
Koko Nor in Qinghai, and Dragon Pool in Sichuan)
are kept as they appeared in earlier botanical
literatures, and “Hong Kong” is used as by its local
government (see text for more information).
~ HAINAN
Acknowledgement: To Ms. Hsia-fei Wang for her painting Peony as
the illustration on the cover.
Food Plants of China
By Shiu-ying Hu
© The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may
be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from
The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
ISBN 962-201-860-2 (Hardcover)
962-996-229-2 (Paperback)
THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY PRESS
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
SHA TIN, N.T., HONG KONG
Fax: [phone]
[phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
Web-site: www.chineseupress.com
Printed in Hong Kong
CON TEN T S

Foreword by Richard Evans Schultes ....... 0... ccc eee cee eee vil
Foreword by George W. Staples, IIT... 0... ce eee eee ix
Introduction: Why the Book and to Whom It Is Addressed ................... xi
[llustrations 2... eee eee eee e been ene n nee XV
PART ONE: CULTURAL ASPECTS OF CHINESE FOOD PLANTS
J. The Sources and Nature of Information ....0.0.... .cee. eee. ee .ee eee 3
Sources of Information ........ 0... eee eeeeee n eens 3
Nature of Information ........ 0... cece cece nee nnn n ene 11
II. The Production and Preparation of Chinese Plant Food ................ 19
Kitchen Gardens ....... 0... 0c eee ee een n eee eet nenes 19
Different Farming Systems ........ 0.0... cece eee cece eee 21
Utilization of Suburban Land for Vegetable Gardens .................. 22
Plant Food Storage and Preservation ....0.... c.e e.ee. ee.e e.ee ee 25
The Use of Microbes in Chinese PlanmtFood 32
Detoxification, Extraction and Limited Utilization .................... 41
III. Selected Chinese Food Plants with Instruction for Preparation .......... 47
Chinese Cooking «0... . ce ccc ene ence nee ences 48
Leafy SHoots 2... ee ec eee eee eens 50
FIOWELS 10 cecebeen teen ene ee ee ee eens 66
Fruits oo eee eee een eee beet eee eee 81
Seeds 2. eee eee e eee tenes 98
opeclal 5ubterranean PlanmtFood,, ee ce eee. 126
ITV. Spices and Flavoring Materlals ccc cee cece cee eee eee eee 147
Cultural and Historical Background ...0..0.... c.ece .ee.e .ee e 148
Common Spices Used in Chinese Food ........................:.-.. 150
Combined Spices and Spicy Liquids for Making Cold Cuts ............ 151
Contents
Natural Colors and Flavors ....... 0... oe eeeten es 153
Table Dips ©... 0.0... ccc ccc eee ence eens 154
Samples for the Application of Spices ...0.0..... cc .ee.e .ee e ee 154
V. Health Food and Herbal Tea ........ cece ccc cece cee ee ee eee eee 161
Bupin 4 un: Plant Esculents for the Conservation of Health ............ 162
Chinese Herbal Teas: Liangcha and Parcelled Medicated Tea ........... 230
Conclusions ... 0... cecee eben eee eens 249
PART TWO: BOTANICAL ASPECTS OF CHINESE FOOD PLANTS
VI. Nonvascular Plants: Monerans, Algae, Fungi and Lichens .............. 257
Monerans 2.0... 00. e ene e beeen ene nes 297
Nonvascular Fukaryotes 一 Algae ,,, ee eee 258
Nonvascular Eukaryotes 一 Fungl c eee ee eee 262
VII. Vascular Plants: Pteridophytes and Spermatophytes ................... 271
Pteridophytes — Filicopsids: True Ferns .......... 00.00... .00.. eee. 271
Spermatophytes 一 Seed-bpearing Planmts ,, 275
Gymnosperrmae: Naked-seed Plants ,, 275
Anglospermae: FloweringPlanmts ,, 280
Monocotyledoneae ,,, cececece eens 280
Dicotyledoneae , ccce ee eens 332
Bibliography ........ 6... cece eee nent ene e nee 793
Latin Name Index ........ 0... ccccc ccnn ence bee n een e eens 763
hilnese NamelIndex ,, ccc cnc n een tenes 781
FOR EW OR D

With its very ancient cultural heritage, China naturally has a rich background in the
utilitarian value of its many different vegetative environments. It is so deeply rooted in
today’s China that one would not expect this heritage to die out with competition from
modern aspects of China’s new development; quite on the contrary, there is no country
where the value of useful plants is more thoroughly appreciated than in contemporary
China — appreciation restricted not only to the general population but also in technical
and scientific spheres. Country folk and city dwellers are still using herbal remedies,
and the chemical, pharmacological and medical investigation of many aspects of
traditional medicines is well under way and receives strong official encouragement.
The same is true of other categories of economic plants, including in a place of prime
importance, the food plants.
It is not only the worldwide love of the sundry Chinese cuisines that makes the
study of food plants of this enormous and culturally very diverse nation of such wide
attraction. Even the nutritional value of some of the lesser known foods is now receiving
the attention of food scientists in China and in other countries as well.
This intense and growing interest consequently has both academic and practical
value to mankind. The ethnobotanical and the health-nutritional and even commercial
aspects, oftentimes working together, bode well for continued maintenance over many
years of this interest in the wealth of plant species that the Chinese through millennia
have found to be useful as foods.
In comparison with the plethora of popular and technical literature that has
appeared on Chinese medicinal plants, little comprehensive material on food species
has been easily available in one volume in Western publications. It is partly for this
reason that this volume will be gratefully welcomed. But it will likewise be widely
accepted as the dedicated labour of one of today’s leading experts on the flora and
economic botany of China — Dr. Shiu-ying Hu.
Dr. Hu, for many years connected with the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard
University, a leading institution in the exploration and investigation of Asiatic floras,
has published many technical and popular papers on the useful plants of China. This
Foreword

book by her on Chinese medicinal plants is a masterful contribution. Now we are offered
a comprehensive survey, prepared from an interdisciplinary point of view, of the Chinese
use of 1,430 species, varieties and cultivars of plants that nourish the extensive
population of this enormous country.
Dr. Hu’s encyclopedic contribution is destined to fill a void that has long been
obvious and will remain for many years a vade-mecum not only for botanists but for
scientists in related nutritional fields and for the interested public.
Richard Evans Schultes
Jeffrey Professor of Biology and
Director, Botanical Museum of Harvard University (Emeritus)
Vili
FOR EW OR D

I first met Shiu-ying Hu in 1981. Her reputation had preceded my meeting her in person,
however, because long before I arrived at Harvard, friends and colleagues had
recommended her to me as a person I must get to know. In the years that have elapsed
since our first meeting, I have come to appreciate Dr. Hu’s capabilities as a taxonomist
and an economic botanist, and as an endless source of information about China and all
things Chinese. Particularly in the latter regard she has been a benefactor to many
people seeking guidance and information.
Throughout my years in graduate school Dr. Hu has generously and patiently
shared with me, and others, her knowledge of her native land, its peoples, their customs,
and the plants they use. When she began working on this book I encouraged her to
press ahead with a project I believed to be very worthwhile. I am delighted that she is
willing to share her knowledge with an even larger audience by setting it down in
book form.
Dr. Hu asked me to read the manuscript. I was pleased to oblige. What I found in
its pages was a fascinating discourse on the plants that are eaten by the Chinese,
including answers to some of the very questions I had asked her over the years. A great
deal of scientific information is presented here; Dr. Hu draws on the fields of plant
taxonomy, morphology, economic botany, pharmacognosy, and phytochemistry to
name a few, yet the text is far from a dry recitation of facts and statistics. What brings
the work to life are the numerous anecdotes and personal experiences she shares. Indeed,
this latter element gives the book the aspect of a personal memoir. |
The subject of this book comes under the discipline of economic botany. More
precisely, it covers the edible plants of one of the oldest continuous cultures on earth.
And edible is applied in a broad connotation here; every plant consumed for food or
for its therapeutic effects is treated. Because it incorporates information drawn from
many fields the book will be of interest to scientists and laypersons alike.
Dr. Hu has organized her material into two parts: a text that introduces the cultural
context of the work and presents detailed examples of the food plants and their