Cistanchis, also known as Cistanche, Cistanches, and Chagan Gao Yao (in Mongolian), is a perennial parasitic herb in the family Ledebouriidae, and its hosts are the pokeweed and white pokeweed plants. Cistanche has no green leaves, the leaves are scale-like, yellowish-white, lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, and there is no chlorophyll to photosynthesize to make nutrients. Therefore, can not live independently, can only live a parasitic life, growth of nutrients required by the host pike plant roots through the formation of "rhizoma"-like sucker, from the host root (body) intake.

The pike and Cistanchis are suitable for growing in the desert area in the northwest of China, which is characterized by strong winds and sands, four distinct seasons, cold winters, hot summers, large temperature differences between day and night, arid weather, low precipitation, high evaporation, and high sunshine hours, which accounted for 35-40% of the total number of hours in a year. The soil is medium-fine sand, pH neutral or alkaline, with high salinity. The soil water-soluble salts have high content of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium and silicon, while the content of nitrogen, phosphorus and organic matter is low, so when Cistanchis are cultivated artificially, fertilizers are needed to replenish the nutrients. It is mainly produced in the desert area of Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai and other provinces and autonomous regions. Therefore, it is not possible to grow Cistanchis anywhere, and it is only suitable for development in the desert area of Northwest China.