Pu’er Dendrobe in Yunnan Province
Pu’er District obsess not only the largest land scale in Yunnan Province, but also the highest forest coverage rate. The tropic of cancer crosses through this district, the warm air stream from Bengal Bay also remains here, these factors made the abundant rainfall, the winter without cold, and the summer without heat. Average temperature in Pu’er is 18.9℃, content of negative oxygen ion here exceeds the world’s highest standard (Level 7), therefore Pu’er has become suitable for the growth of Dendrobium candidum. The vast forest holds the natural breath of wisdom, the orchid ethereal floating in the silent valley, among which graceful flowers bloom. As perennial herbaceous to epiphytic orchid, Dendrobium candidum grow upon those rocks on the semi-wet side of mountains with an altitude of 1600 meters.
Dendrobium candidum obtains unique medical usage, its stalk is often used in traditional Chinese medicine to adjust the digestive function of human body and to cleaning heat. Tender part of its stalk with proper treated spirally twist into spring shape will be sold as Tiepi(Iron hide) Fengdou. A saying goes “Gensing comes from the North, Fengdou comes from the South” shows the outstanding medical value of Dendrobe.
According to the records of Shennong’s Herbal Classic in Qin&Han Dynasty, Dendrobe helps strengthen the digestive function and the weak internal organs. Daozang (collection of classics in Taoist) written over 1000 years ago ranks Dendrobe the 1st palce of the nine magical plants in China. Li Shizhen, knows as one of the greatest physicians and pharmacologists in Chinese history, also agrees on the medical value of Dendrobe. Ordinary Chinese people consider the Dendrobe as an extraordinary life-saving being.
Dendrobe gains favor from the royal class in Chinese History. But due to the tough environment where it grows, natural production of Dendrobe is extremely rare. Nowadays China has listed Dendrobe as one of the feral medical herbs of high-rate protection.
Pu’er has been working on promoting the advantage of Dendrobe planting industry in recent years based on its unique original ecological environment and resource advantage. Artificial planting of Dendrobe has achieved breaking results, the industrializing-planted of Dendrobe reached over 11018 acres, the annual production reaches 2151 tons, the output value is more than 60 million yuan. To further promote Dendrobe industry, local government and Conba Group signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement, planing to enlarge the scale of Dendrobe planting to 2 million acres within 3 to 5 years, and to build the country’s largest Dendrobium candidum industrial base.
