| Origin and best harvesting period |
The white fruit is the dried, ripe seeds of Ginkgo biloba, a plant of the Ginkgo family. Shi Zhen said, "Ginkgo is born in the south of the Yangtze River, and the one in Xuancheng is the best." It grows in natural forests with acidic soil and good drainage at an altitude of 500-1000m. It is cultivated from Shenyang in the north to Guangzhou in the south, from East China to Guizhou and Yunnan in the southwest, and the ripe fruits are harvested in October-November, stacked on the ground or immersed in water to rot the fleshy outer seed coat (or pounded off the outer seed coat), washed and dried in the sun. |
