Loquat flowers, this seemingly ordinary small flower, actually contain a deep historical heritage. The earliest documents that record loquat flowers can be traced back to the herbal works of the Ming Dynasty. In these texts that record the mysteries of nature, the indications and effects of loquat flowers in medicine have been clearly pointed out. 
This shows that loquat flowers were discovered by the local people hundreds of years ago and used in daily health care. With the passage of time and the accumulation of medical knowledge, loquat flowers have slowly gained a place in the field of traditional Chinese medicine. Not only will folk medicine use it for cold, fever, neurasthenia and other symptoms, but also loquat flower recipes are often prescribed in traditional Chinese medicine outpatient clinics, such as being compatible with other medicinal herbs, used to dissolve phlegm and relieve cough or calm the nerves. It can be seen that its medicinal value is well recognized by the Chinese medicine community. However, it is a pity that few of the villagers living in the villages where loquat flowers live understand its benefits. They have cultivated loquat trees for generations with the aim of harvesting the fruit. 
For them, the pretty little flowers that bloom on the trees and then float away are just superfluous decorations. Many villagers even say that if these flowers do not bloom, the nutrients they absorb may make the fruits bigger and sweeter. It can be seen that the unique medicinal value of loquat flowers does not have a place in the cognition of indigenous villagers. In fact, the reason why loquat flowers have such an effect is also due to its special growth environment. Loquat trees are mainly distributed in the southern region with mild climate, and the climate change and moderate rainfall in the four seasons provide important support for the formation of loquat flower texture. If it is relocated to other places for cultivation, it may not be able to guarantee the efficacy of the medicine. This shows the importance of the right time, place and people. 
The loquat tree is a household name in the village, and it can be seen in the courtyard of almost every house. As a common ornamental and fruiting tree, the villagers' knowledge of loquat trees also stopped here. In winter, the loquat trees are covered with small white flowers, and the villagers only regard them as a beautifying plant. They don't go out of their way to appreciate the flowers, let alone pick them for use. In their view, the loquat flower is just a transitional stage before the loquat tree bears fruit, and what really matters is whether it can harvest enough fruit after a few months. Some villagers even believe that these useless flowers are still competing with the fruit for nutrients, and if they don't bloom, will it make this year's fruit even better?As a result, it is common to see such a sight in the village: beautiful loquat flowers fall to the ground after bearing fruit, and the villagers walk by step without anyone paying attention or picking them up. 
That's what Lao Zhang, who had planted loquat trees in the village, thought. His impression of loquat flowers has always stayed at the stage of "useless but beautiful". Until one year, when he was tending to the loquat orchard as usual and preparing for a bumper harvest, he found that the number of fruits was far less than in previous years. Lao Zhang suddenly realized that loquat flowers also play a key role in fruiting, and they are an important condition for the pollination of loquat trees. If the loquat flowers do not bloom well, the final fruit yield will be greatly reduced. At this time, Lao Zhang realized that he should not ignore the value of loquat flowers. Like the fruit, it is an important part of the loquat tree's growth cycle, and it is only when both parts are healthy that the fruit can be harvested. Therefore, in the years to come, Lao Zhang will focus on the growth of loquat flowers, and no longer only focus on the fruit as before. 
Other villagers also heard about this truth from Lao Zhang one after another. Gradually, the impression of the villagers on loquat flowers has changed subtly. They begin to learn to appreciate the beauty of loquat flowers blooming and to allow them to open normally and sufficiently before fruiting. This may be the first time that the villagers have come to terms with the value of these tiny flowers, even if they still don't know what the loquat flowers mean. Unlike other flowers, loquat flowers have distinctive growth habits. It doesn't choose to bloom in early summer, like lilies, and it doesn't bloom in warm spring like plum blossoms. The loquat flowers are chosen to bloom when the temperature in the north is at its lowest and the other vegetation on the trees has withered. 
When the snowy winter comes, the loquat tree is not afraid of the cold, and it can still produce flower buds tenaciously. These tiny buds are pale green at first, tightly wrapped in round, blunt calyxes, and as the buds slowly open, the white petals inside reveal their true faces. When loquat flowers bloom on the tree, although they are not large in size, they bloom densely like a layer of shining snowflakes. Compared to other flowers, the petals of loquat flowers are relatively thin, and if you look closely, you can even faintly see the core through the surface. This makes it appear more light and dignified. The center of the flower also produces a cluster of yellow stamens, which is an important part of its pollination. The faint fragrance of loquat flowers is also evident in the crisp winter air. This may be the charm of such a special place, when everything has withered, but the loquat flower chooses to bloom in the extreme cold, bringing life and hope to people. 
In the yards of people in the village, some evergreen plums are often planted. Deep red plum blossoms bloom side by side with white loquat flowers, creating a striking color contrast between the two. As the villagers watched two very different flowers grow tenaciously in the bitter cold, they could not help but feel a deep sense of admiration for the miraculous transformation of nature. Loquat flowers have always been a useless plant in the eyes of the villagers. Once they open beautifully, they will eventually fall off and fall off the following spring. These fragile little flowers, no one seems to care about them all the time. However, in the last few years, the perception of loquat flowers has changed dramatically. It turns out that loquat flower is a very precious Chinese medicinal material, and the florin and minerals it contains have significant medicinal effects on the human body. 
In traditional Chinese medicine, this is known as clearing away heat and phlegm, moistening the lungs and relieving cough. Once this meaning is revealed, the loquat flower in the eyes of the villagers immediately seems to have a different value. From the initial worthlessness to the current sky-high disparity, all the villagers who witnessed the process were surprised. It is said that the ** loquat flower on the market today should be graded according to its size and freshness. The top dried loquat flowers, the current unit price has been as high as 4,000 yuan per catty!This is already more than 5 times that of the ordinary loquat fruit**. Other grades of loquat flowers also basically fluctuate in the range of 1,000-3,000 yuan per catty. Literally, overnight, loquat flowers became a veritable "soft **".
This phenomenon of upsurge is mainly caused by two aspects. First, Chinese medicine dealers discovered the medicinal effects of loquat flowers and purchased them in large quantities to refine medicinal materialsOn the other hand, the yield of loquat flowers is low, and there are not many high-quality loquat flowers that can meet the requirements of medicinal use every year, and the supply and demand relationship in the market has also pushed up its natural value. However, for the people in the village, the soaring price of loquat flowers is still a very distant thing, because most of the high-grade loquat flowers are actually obtained by specialized medicinal material procurement merchants or dealers through manual picking. The rise of loquat flowers** has made many villagers interested in its possibility of making money, but when they have tried the process of picking and processing it themselves, they have lost their minds about the business. It turns out that the serious large-scale production of loquat flowers is far more complicated than ordinary people imagine. 
The picking process alone is enough to discourage ordinary villagers. Every year, there are hundreds of flowers on an adult loquat tree, and there are hundreds of flowers on each bunch, and it is difficult to pick them all. What's more, the fragile loquat flowers have very demanding requirements: they cannot be picked at noon in the strong sun, nor can they be picked in rainy weather;Harvesting can only be done in the early morning or late afternoon on a cloudy day. In addition, the flowers must be brought back in their entirety without the slightest damage or bruising. This is a huge challenge for the physical strength and experience of ordinary villagers. Many villagers who tried it for the first time were unable to pick the flowers, and when they finally returned, more than half of the flowers had been lost. At this efficiency, it is impossible to achieve large-scale production.
And even when the whole flower is shipped home, the heavy lifting has just begun. These loquat flowers are then picked, dried, dried and other steps, and then processed layer by layer to become medicinal dried loquat flowers. Sifting out the moth-eaten and broken loquat flowers requires a lot of energy, and many villagers give up at this step. Finally, even if dried flowers are obtained, their medicinal value and ** need to be identified. If you don't meet the high quality standards, you will still end up with a few pennies to come by. Thinking of this, the villagers all dispelled the idea of doing it themselves. The complexity of the harvest and processing was beyond their imagination.
Not to mention that most of the people who plant loquat trees in the village have their own orchards. If the loquat flowers are harvested in a big way, it will have a big impact on this year's fruit yield. This is too great a loss for the villagers who make a living from selling the fruits and is unacceptable. Therefore, for the vast majority of villagers, the production of loquat flowers by hand can be said to be a complete gain that outweighs the loss. The sky-high price of loquat flowers in the market and its mass production, they seem to be more willing to continue to maintain their original life, not moved by this skyrocketing **. Although the villagers have lost interest in producing loquat flowers on their own, the huge demand for loquat flowers, which is in short supply in the market, still needs to be satisfied. As a result, a special loquat flower procurement was gradually derived.
These middlemen would sign contracts with the herb dealers in advance, and then bring the money and manpower to the loquat villages to buy them. They hire local villagers to pick flowers by hand on a piece-rate basis, and then complete the processing steps themselves, such as sorting and baking. In this way, the villagers are responsible for the initial simple labor, without having to learn specialized skills or operations, and without taking the risk of processing. They can easily use their spare time to earn some extra money, so they are more willing to cooperate. These herb traders often have their own quality control standards to ensure that the final harvested dried loquat flowers meet the requirements of downstream customers. Because the final sales** of different grades of loquat flowers vary greatly, they must be sorted by quality screening to ensure profitability. The profit margins of the loquat flowers purchased through this kind of purchase will be further magnified every time they are traded and distributed. When entering the last sales link, the price increase of a single product can be more than ten times higher than that of the original **.
This is also why the vision loquat flower on the market can be as high as 4,000 yuan per catty. Therefore, this is actually an operating system in which the gradient of interests is amplified and finally converged to the sales side. Villagers, purchasers, distributors, final sellers, and every role in the entire industrial chain can have the opportunity to get a piece of the pie. This win-win situation is also the key to the rapid development of the entire industry. Although the loquat industry has made great strides in recent years, there is still a serious imbalance between supply and demand in the market. In the case of a large amount of unmet demand, the ** of high-grade loquat flowers will continue to rise.
At the same time, the development of the industry is also facing the pain of a bottleneck period. At this stage, the main problem is that the collection of wild loquat flowers cannot keep up with the growth rate of the market. The method of manual harvesting is inefficient, and the technology of large-scale mechanized production needs to be broken through. As a result, a large number of mature loquat flowers are scattered and rotted on the trees every year, and are not fully utilized. If a new type of mechanized picking and finished product processing equipment can be developed and put into use, it will be able to alleviate the current shortage to a certain extent. This is also the only way for industrial upgrading.
In addition, cultivating a high-quality loquat flower planting base and large-scale artificial cultivation are also completely feasible directions. In fact, local governments and research authorities are also actively promoting these changes. Through policy support and guidance, we will attract more social capital to invest in the loquat flower industry, and gradually realize standardized and large-scale production. This can not only alleviate the contradiction between supply and demand in the market, but also drive the increase of related jobs and promote local economic development. In the long run, the loquat flower industry, as an integral part of traditional Chinese medicine, still has broad prospects. With the growth of demand for traditional Chinese medicine at home and abroad, loquat flowers are in the opposite direction.
However, the rapid upgrading of the current industry is an indispensable transitional stage. Only by further deepening reform can we bring about new development opportunities. It is believed that through the joint efforts of all sectors of society, the great value of this small life form will eventually be more fully and reasonably developed and utilized. At that time, it will no longer be a useless weed in the eyes of the villagers, but a precious flower that will be given a new meaning.