What is this spider-like fruit that's suddenly become popular? Is it delicious?

With the development of logistics management and cold chain transportation, the fruits on the shelves are not only becoming fresher and more beautiful, but there are also more and more things that have never been seen before.

A strange fruit has suddenly become popular. It looks like a blueberry from a distance, but when you look closely, it has many vertical ribs like a pumpkin. What's more terrifying is that it has a circle of "spider legs" with fangs and claws. People can't help but wonder if this fruit is from an "other world"? Can it be eaten? Is it really delicious?

Image source: Xiaohongshu

Of course you can eat it, the taste...

First of all, fruits that can be sold in regular supermarkets and e-commerce platforms must be edible. This purple-black fruit is called red ginseng. They have a light taste, sour and sweet, not bitter or astringent, and have a sandy and crispy texture.

To be fair, among the new exotic fruits that have debuted in recent years with their appearance, its taste is pretty good. The only drawback is that the red ginseng has a strong grassy smell, especially those "spider legs" sticking out - some people find it unacceptable and think it tastes bad, but there are also many people who like this taste.

If you like eating raw green leafy vegetables, then I suggest you muster up the courage to give it a try. You may not really like it, but at least you can satisfy your curiosity.

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Is red ginseng really nutritious?

For a fruit that doesn’t taste amazing, merchants will inevitably promote its so-called “nutritional value”, but most of them are untenable. For example, some platforms claim that it has “a very high anthocyanin content of 0.0820g/100g”, but this content is less than a quarter of that of blueberries and is only at a medium level among common purple fruits.

As for the polysaccharides, flavonoids, vitamins, etc. mentioned in various promotional materials, they are all average and not bad, but there is nothing particularly outstanding about them, and they can be obtained by consuming other fruits.

In other words, you don’t have to eat it specifically for nutrition. If you like its taste, red ginseng, as a different kind of “fruit”, is also a good option to enrich our diet. After all, the more diverse the food, the better.

Why does red ginseng look so strange?

The most attractive thing about red ginseng is, of course, its strange appearance. In fact, the "spider legs" on the red ginseng fruit are just the remains of the calyx, which is actually the same as the "navel" of blueberries, apples, and pomegranates we often eat. The only difference is the location, shape and size of the calyx.

In botanical terms, blueberries are all "inferior to the ovary", that is, the ovary grows on the underside of the calyx, so after the fruit is formed, the calyx remains at the farthest end of the fruit.

The red ginseng has a semi-inferior ovary, so the remaining calyx is left in the middle of the fruit. This semi-inferior ovary is not common in the fruits around us, so it is inevitable that it looks a bit strange.

I: superior ovary, II: semi-inferior (median) ovary, III: inferior ovary. a: male flower organ, g: female flower organ, p: petal, s: sepal, r: receptacle Image source: Wikipedia

Of course, you may ask why the red ginseng has a "belly button". Unlike the "belly button" of apples and pomegranates, this small circle is actually the remaining trace of the red ginseng corolla .

If we look closely at blueberries, we will find that there is actually a similar circle inside the protruding calyx of blueberries, which is the remnant of the blueberry corolla. However, the two circles of blueberries are very close and not so easy to notice, while the lower ovary of red fruit has increased the distance between the calyx and corolla, making the two circles very obvious.

Where does this strange fruit come from?

The plant that produces this kind of fruit actually looks much more ordinary. In the Flora of China, the official Chinese name of this plant is " Lunzhonghua ", and its scientific name is Cyclocodon lancifolius. It is a member of the Campanulaceae family. Their flowers are very similar to Platycodon flowers, both of which are bell-shaped tubular flowers, and the bases of all the petals are connected together, but they have an additional enlarged ovary than Platycodon flowers, which looks like a big bulge on a bell.

The gypsophila has many nicknames. Because it has the same swollen fleshy roots as Platycodon grandiflorum and its fruit is reddish purple, it is called "red ginseng"; because it looks like a water chestnut and an abacus, it is also called "mountain water chestnut" or "earth abacus"; because of the "spider legs" on the fruit, it has another very appropriate nickname, "spider fruit".

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The round bell flower is a large herbaceous plant that can grow up to 3 meters. Depending on the climate and environment, it can be an annual or perennial. This plant is native to the south of the Yangtze River Basin in my country, especially in the southwest. Abroad, it can be found in many Southeast Asian countries, from northeastern India in the west to Papua New Guinea in the east.

At first, red fruit ginseng was just a wild fruit in the mountains and a snack for wild children. However, in recent years, it has begun to be cultivated commercially on a large scale, and the main production areas are also in the southwest.

Compared with other fruits, the biggest advantage of red ginseng is that it bears fruit in a short time and has a quick return on investment. Generally speaking, if it is planted at the turn of spring and summer, it can bear fruit and have a good harvest in the second year, or even in the same year. Moreover, red ginseng is also very durable in transportation and storage, and can even be stored for three or four months if the conditions are right.

With such an excellent personality, it is no wonder that both fruit farmers and supermarkets can't wait to bring it to the market. So, dear friends, have you tried it? Describe the taste you tasted in the comment area !

Planning and production

This article is a work of Science Popularization China-Starry Sky Project

Produced by: Science Popularization Department of China Association for Science and Technology

Producer｜China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., Beijing Zhongke Xinghe Culture Media Co., Ltd.

Author: Lao Mao, a popular science writer

Review丨Gu Yourong Associate Professor of the School of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, PhD in Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Planning丨Lin Lin

Editor: He Tong