Shanxi Cordyceps

Shanxi Cordyceps

　　Cordyceps, also known as Dong Chong Xia Cao, is a traditional Chinese medicinal herb. According to *Compendium of Materia Medica*, it has the function of dispelling wind and cold. In Jincheng, it is mainly produced in areas such as Aobei Mountain and Dale Ridge in Yangcheng.

Cordyceps, also called insect fungus, is one of the renowned products of the snowy plateau in Lijiang. Cordyceps (Tibetan: Yajia Gengbu) is a precious traditional Chinese medicinal herb in our country's medical treasury and is often ranked alongside ginseng and deer antler as one of the three great tonics.

Its tonic and therapeutic efficacy surpasses that of ginseng and deer antler, and it is extremely expensive. The reason why the fungus is called "Dong Chong Xia Cao" (winter worm, summer grass) lies in its unique formation: during the peak of summer when snow and ice melt on the snowy plateau, the eggs laid by bat moths on meadow flowers, grass, and leaves hatch naturally into small insects that burrow into the soil and grow by feeding on plant roots and stems. At this time, the cordyceps, which becomes active during the hot summer months, infiltrates the insect body to parasitize and reproduce, germinating mycelium. From summer to winter, it slowly consumes the underground larva, leading to its death and forming the "winter worm." The following summer, the cordyceps fungus sprouts a stalk from within the insect, emerging from the ground as a 4–10 cm tall purplish-red small grass with a pineapple-like capsule on top—this is the "summer grass." When the spores inside the summer grass capsule mature, they are ejected through the capsule’s opening, carried by the wind, and await the chance to infiltrate another insect body to reproduce, thus continuing the cycle of "Dong Chong Xia Cao."

Its tonic and therapeutic functions surpass those of ginseng and deer antler, and it is extremely expensive. The reason why the fungus is called "Dong Chong Xia Cao" (winter worm, summer grass) lies in its unique formation: during the peak of summer when snow and ice melt on the snowy plateau, the eggs laid by bat moths on meadow flowers, grass, and leaves hatch naturally into small insects that burrow into the soil and grow by feeding on plant roots and stems. At this time, the cordyceps, which becomes active during the hot summer months, infiltrates the insect body to parasitize and reproduce, germinating mycelium. From summer to winter, it slowly consumes the underground larva, leading to its death and forming the "winter worm." The following summer, the cordyceps fungus sprouts a stalk from within the insect, emerging from the ground as a 4–10 cm tall purplish-red small grass with a pineapple-like capsule on top—this is the "summer grass." When the spores inside the summer grass capsule mature, they are ejected through the capsule’s opening, carried by the wind, and await the chance to infiltrate another insect body to reproduce, thus continuing the cycle of "Dong Chong Xia Cao."