Ingredient – Rhus Chinensis Mill.

Salt bran wood (scientific name: Rhus chinensis Mill.) is a deciduous small tree plant belonging to the genus Suaeda in the family Anacardiaceae. Up to 10 meters tall, with brownish twigs, polymorphic leaves, round base, dark green leaf surface, pink green back, and no stem. The inflorescence is broad and branched, with short female inflorescences and dense soft hairs; The bracts are white, the petals are oblong, and they roll outward when flowering; The drupe is spherical and red when ripe. It blooms from August to September and bears fruit in October. Salt bran wood can absorb salt from the soil and secrete it in the form of saltwater. When the water evaporates, the salt adheres to the tree, hence the name.

Growth Environment

Salt bran wood is a widely distributed species, currently found in countries such as India and Japan. Except for Northeast China, Inner Mongolia, and Xinjiang, it is distributed in all other provinces and regions in China. Enjoys light, warm and humid climate, strong adaptability, and cold resistance. The soil requirements are not strict. Born in sparse forests or shrubs such as sunny slopes and valleys at medium to high altitudes. Salt bran wood has seed propagation, root pressing, and cutting methods.

Morphological Character

Deciduous small trees or shrubs, 2-10 meters high; Branchlets brownish, covered in rust colored soft hairs, with round small pores. Odd feather compound leaves have 2-6 pairs of small leaves, paper like, with coarse and blunt serrations on the edges, dense gray brown hairs on the back, wide leaf like wings on the leaf axis, gradually increasing from bottom to top, and rust colored soft hairs on the leaf axis and petiole; The leaflets are polymorphic, ovate or elliptical ovate or oblong, 6-12 cm long and 3-7 cm wide, with a sharp apex and a rounded base. The apical leaflets are wedge-shaped at the base and have coarse serrations or rounded teeth at the edges. The leaf surface is dark green, and the back is pink green, covered with white powder. The leaf surface is sparsely covered with soft hairs or nearly hairless along the midrib, and the back is covered with rust colored soft hairs. The veins are dense, and the lateral and fine veins are concave on the leaf surface and protrude on the back of the leaf; Small leaves without stems.

The inflorescence is broad and multi branched, with male inflorescences measuring 30-40 cm in length and female inflorescences being shorter, densely covered in rust colored soft hairs; The bracts are lanceolate, about 1 millimeter long, covered with soft hairs. The bracteoles are extremely small, and the flowers are milky white. The flower stalks are about 1 millimeter long and covered with soft hairs; Male flowers: sepals covered in soft hairs, lobes long ovate, about 1 millimeter long, with fine eyelashes on the edges; Petals are inverted oval in shape, about 2 millimeters long, and roll outward during flowering; Stamens extended, filaments linear, about 2 millimeters long, hairless, anthers ovate, about 0.7 millimeters long; Ovary sterility; Female flowers: sepal lobes are relatively short, about 0.6 millimeters long, covered with soft hairs on the outside, and have fine eyelashes on the edges; Petals elliptical ovate, about 1.6 millimeters long, with fine eyelashes on the edges, and soft hairs on the lower part inside; The stamens are extremely short; The flower disk is hairless; Ovary ovate, about 1 millimeter long, densely covered with white soft hairs, styles 3, stigma head shaped. The drupe is spherical, slightly flattened, with a diameter of 4-5 millimeters, covered with soft and glandular hairs, red when mature, and a nucleus diameter of 3-4 millimeters. The flowering period is from July to September, and the fruiting period is from October to November.

Reproductive Methods

Sexual Propagation

Seed Collection and Processing

1. Timely seed collection: After the salt bran wood fruit matures, the ear can remain on the fruit branch until the stem rots and falls off, and the seed collection period can reach six months. In the southern mountainous area of China Luoyang, the fruit is collected in November when it is fully ripe. The collection methods include direct picking, cutting, or using homemade seed picking hooks to pick the fruit clusters. For trees with higher trunks, shake the trunk vigorously to make the fruit clusters fall to the ground and then pick them up.
2. Fruit drying: Salt bran wood fruit ears collected from the mountains and fields usually have fruit stalks, which can be removed by combing down the fruit and removing the stalks. Due to the oily and moist nature of the salt bran wood, it needs to be air dried for 3-5 days, sieved to remove miscellaneous bags, and then peeled off. The stone fruit should be dried in a drying field or with a cement flat roof, with a thickness of 2-3 centimeters, and stirred frequently. After drying for 3-5 days, the moisture content of the stone fruit should reach 10-12%. In production, the thumb and index finger can also be used to twist and rub the stone fruit. When the stone fruit skin is dry and non sticky, it can be easily removed by hand. The germination rate of dried stone fruits is generally around 55%.
3. Seed shelling method: Crush the dried stone fruits with a mortar or a stone roller to crush the outer and middle skin, rinse them clean, air dry, and the resulting kernels are the seeds. Agricultural grain hullers (corn hullers) are often used for shelling processing, which can greatly improve efficiency.
4. Clean seeds and packaging storage: The shelled seeds are air selected, sieved, and mixed to clean the seeds. They are then packaged into 25kg or 50kg standard bags and stored indoors in bags. Salt bran wood seeds weigh 7.7-9.0 grams per thousand seeds, with pure seeds weighing 110000-130000 seeds per kilogram. Processed seeds are sampled and sent to seed inspection and quarantine institutions for inspection and quarantine according to regulations. After inspection and quarantine, they can be sold and used in production (specific requirements depend on the laws of each country).

Nursery Selection and Land Preparation

Seedling cultivation sites should be selected in areas with fertile, flat, sunny soil, convenient irrigation, and convenient transportation. Before the soil is frozen, deep plowing should be carried out, and the following spring, combined with two plows, 3000-5000 kilograms of organic fertilizer per acre should be applied, or 35 kilograms of superphosphate and 40 kilograms of ammonium bicarbonate should be applied as base fertilizer, and the soil blocks should be crushed and raked flat.

Seed Germination Treatment

1. Soak the seeds in cold water for one day and night, remove them and mix them with wet sand (in a ratio of 1:3), place them in a room at room temperature of 20 ℃, flip them every day, and keep them moist until the seeds are ready for sowing.
2. Soak the seeds in water at around 80 ℃, let them cool naturally while stirring continuously, and continue soaking for 2 days and nights. Change the water once a day, then remove them and put them in a burlap bag. Place them at 15 ℃ and flip them 1-2 times a day until about 50% of the seeds are ready for sowing.
3. Add warm water at around 50 ℃ to the wood ash and wither it into a paste, then scrub the salt bran wood seeds. Mix the seeds with 10% concentrated lime water and stir evenly. After soaking for 3-5 days, spread them on a dustpan, cover them with a straw curtain, and water them once a day. When the embryonic roots of the seeds are exposed from the seed coat and the embryonic buds begin to sprout, sow.
4. If the nursery land can be sorted out in the autumn of the previous year and the seeds can be sown in autumn, it can save the process of seed storage and germination.

Sowing Time

Usually from mid March to early April in spring.

Sowing Method

Make the seedbed into a 1.5 meter wide and 30 meter long bed, and irrigate the bottom soil with sufficient moisture before sowing. The sowing rate is about 15 kilograms per acre. When sowing, leave a row spacing of 30 centimeters, use a hoe or trencher to dig a 5-centimeter deep sowing ditch, then evenly sprinkle the seeds in the sowing ditch, cover the seeds with fine soil, with a thickness of 2-3 times the diameter of the seeds, or cover the seeds with fine sand, with a thickness of no seeds, and then cover with plastic film to keep the seedbed warm and moist. After a large number of seedlings are unearthed, gradually drill holes in the plastic film and let it air to refine the seedlings. When there are enough holes in the plastic film and the temperature and humidity inside and outside the film are not much different, the plastic film can be removed.

Seedling Management

1. Salt bran wood seeds usually start to take root and sprout 10 days after sowing, and begin to emerge half a month later. The peak emergence period is 20-30 days, and the emergence ends after about 2 months. The germination rate of seeds is about 70%, and the seedling rate can reach about 95%.
2. When the seedlings grow to about 5 centimeters, they should be thinned out with a distance of 3-5 centimeters between them.
3. Plowing and weeding. Perform 2-3 times before and after planting, and combine with shallow hoeing to loosen the soil and weed.
4. Conduct a comprehensive additional fertilization in mid June, applying 20 kilograms of urea per acre, and promptly loosening the soil, weeding, and controlling pests and diseases; In the first and middle of August, choose sunny mornings or evenings, and apply 1-2 times of potassium dihydrogen phosphate to the leaves (1 kilogram per acre each time). After mid August, the main focus is on loosening the soil and weeding.
5. Except for keeping the soil moist during the seedling stage, it is generally not advisable to water too much in the future to prevent overgrowth of the aboveground parts. During the rainy season, accumulated water should be promptly drained.

Asexual Reproduction

Salt bran wood can also be propagated through cuttings or root pressing. The root pressing propagation method involves digging out the roots of old salt bran wood, cutting them into root segments of about 30 centimeters, and then dipping them in mud to insert the roots, leaving about 10 centimeters of ground. This method has a high survival rate and fast growth. The roots can bear fruit in one year when they are large, and it can become a forest in 2-3 years.

Cultivation Techniques

• Flat land can be leveled in a hole shape, with a hole diameter of 40-60 centimeters and a depth of 40-50 centimeters, which can be dug and planted as needed. For mountainous areas with poor site conditions, fish scale pit preparation can be carried out, with a length of 70 centimeters, a short diameter of 50 centimeters, and a depth of 40 centimeters. Land preparation should be carried out in autumn, winter or rainy season.
• Choose strong seedlings from the same year for afforestation, dip the roots in mud during planting, and achieve a survival rate of over 95%. Planting should be carried out from late autumn to the following spring, with a depth of 2-3 centimeters beyond the original soil seal. The covering soil should be compacted to facilitate the survival of seedlings. Planting in low-lying areas should be avoided, and timely drainage should be carried out to prevent water accumulation and plant death. Cut 1-3 centimeter thick root strips into 20-30 centimeter long root spikes, and insert them into the soil in spring or autumn, with the upper end 10 centimeters above the surface.
• Salt bran wood afforestation is mainly used to cultivate gallnuts, which requires dense planting and afforestation in large areas. Generally, the plant spacing is 40 centimeters, the row spacing is 50 centimeters, and about 3335 plants are planted per acre; The planting density for other purposes is 2 meters by 2 meters, with 167 plants planted per acre.
• In the first 2 years after afforestation, loosen the soil and weed 2-3 times a year, and water according to the soil moisture. Trim the weak and diseased branches, other branches do not need to be pruned.

Main Value

The tender leaves of salt bran wood are stimulated by the invasion and parasitism of galls by aphids, which produce galls. This is called galls and can be used for medicinal purposes. It is also known as the galls tree and is a unique economic tree species in China.

Entering autumn and winter, its leaves are bright red and its fruit fruits are orange red, with brilliant colors that are quite beautiful. It is also a good ornamental tree species for gardens. Salt bran wood is rich in nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potassium oxide, and other nutrients in its fresh and tender stems and leaves. It can be “cutting green” (that is, harvesting immature crops and wild grasses to ferment green manure) multiple times a year, resulting in high yields. Additionally, the stems and leaves are soft, juicy, and easily decomposed, making it an excellent green manure.

Salt bran wood plants are extensive, short, and strong, with well-developed and robust root systems. They have strong adaptability, fast growth, tolerance to drought and barrenness, and strong root tillering ability, which is beneficial for soil and water conservation. They are an important afforestation and greening tree species, as well as a pioneer plant for the restoration of abandoned land (such as coal slag storage areas for lime burning, abandoned mines, etc.).

In addition, the tender stems and leaves of salt bran wood can be consumed as wild vegetables and also used as pig feed.

Final Note

In traditional Chinese medicine, salt bran wood’s roots, leaves, flowers, and fruits have the effects of clearing heat, detoxifying, dispersing blood stasis, and stopping bleeding. Commonly used for colds, fever, bronchitis, coughing, hemoptysis, diarrhea, dysentery, hemorrhoid bleeding; Roots and leaves are used for injuries caused by falls, venomous snake bites, and paint sores. However, its medicinal value requires scientific verification.

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