Speaking of loquat, everyone will know, but speaking of loquat, I believe not many people know. Actually loquat is also called wild sweet potato. Although inedible, it has many medicinal values. So today's food culture, I'll show you what it does.

Morphology of loquat

Loquat is also known as sweet potato, wild sweet potato, sweet potato vine, sweet pomegranate, gall purple, sweet potato banyan, sweet potato melon seeds and so on. Evergreen woody vines, growing in patches in Portugal; Branchlets densely rusty or grayish brown tomentose. The leaves are leathery, lanceolate, obovate or oblong, with a length of 10 ~ 30cm and a width of 3 ~ 10~30cm, with a sharp or tapering tip and a wedge-shaped or tapering petiole at the base.

Loquat flowers are small and unisexual, hidden in the big inflorescence Tori; Inflorescence with short stems, clustered on short branches in soil, spherical or ovoid; Bracts 3, basal; Male peanuts are in the receptacle of gall, and female flowers are born in the receptacle of another inflorescence. It develops into a solitary spherical flower with a diameter of 4–15 mm, which is reddish brown when mature. The fruiting period is May-June.

Distribution of loquat

It is distributed in the Yangtze River valley of China and many subtropical provinces, such as Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan and southwestern Shaanxi. Sexual preference for warm and humid climate, positive plant, semi-shade tolerance, natural growth in low mountain slopes, ridges, ditches, scrub edges, sparse forests, roadsides and other places, often growing in pieces.

Medicinal value of loquat

Whole grass can be used as medicine. Bitter and slightly sweet, the fruit is sweet. Clearing heat and promoting diuresis. Used for children's dyspepsia, acute gastroenteritis, dysentery, gastric and duodenal ulcer, urinary tract infection, leucorrhea, cold, cough, rheumatism and muscle pain.

Garden value of loquat

Sweet potato is a perennial woody vine, which grows rapidly. In some places where there are many weeds, it can be used as a dominant population to inhibit the growth of weeds. Loquat with a certain height, if planted in pieces, can play a great role in eliminating urban deciduous leaves.