Lugui Gardenia

Lugui Gardenia

　　Lugui County is one of Guangxi’s main production bases for gardenia fruit, and Zhasha Town is known as the “Hometown of Gardenia.” The natural plant pigment “gardenia yellow,” extracted from the fruit of the gardenia, boasts a vivid yellow hue and is widely used in food, medicine, daily chemicals, and other industries. Its products are exported to countries such as Japan and Western Europe. With rising living standards and growing health awareness, people increasingly prefer using natural pigments, leading to a year-by-year increase in demand. Gardenia is an evergreen shrub with well-developed roots, lush branches and leaves, and elegant white flowers. It is usually planted on hillsides and harvested from December to January each year. Cultivating gardenia not only provides fruit for sale and increases farmers’ income, but also contributes to greening barren hills and slopes, preventing soil erosion, improving the local microclimate, beautifying the environment, and achieving coordinated development between ecological construction and social and economic progress. Driven by market demand, in recent years the production scale of Lugui gardenia has expanded further. Many households grow gardenia as a key source of income, and its cultivation has become part of projects aimed at converting farmland back to forest and optimizing agricultural structure. It is one of the main economic tree species being actively developed.

　　Source: Guangxi Agricultural Specialties Compilation