Fanshi Mamaha

Fanshi Mahaha

　　Mamaha, also known as mountain scallion flower, wild leek flower, bandit mahaha, picked mahaha, heavenly fragrance flower, cui mian flower, zha meng flower, bandit bandit mian, and tea mahaha. It is distributed in Inner Mongolia, the Northeast, and North China, growing wild on sunny slopes of mountains, blooming and seeding only in years with sufficient rainfall. Because it is wild, mahaha is natural, green, and rare.

　　When cooking oil is heated to around 180 degrees Celsius, adding mahaha releases an incredibly fragrant aroma that stimulates the appetite. It is a premium seasoning used in northern Shanxi and North China for pot-stewed noodles, tempered congee, stir-fried dishes, hot pot, pasta, and cold mixed vegetables. The fine-leaved Chinese chive grows several bulbs clustered together, nearly cylindrical in shape. The outer skin of the bulb is purple-brown, dark brown to gray-black, membranous, often irregularly cracked at the tip, with the inner skin being purplish-red and membranous. The leaves are semi-cylindrical to nearly cylindrical, nearly the same length as the scape, 0.3–1 mm in diameter, smooth, occasionally with fine rough edges along the longitudinal ridges. The scape is cylindrical with fine longitudinal ridges, smooth, 10–35 (50) cm tall, 0.5–1 mm in diameter, with the lower part covered by leaf sheaths. The scape bracts are single-lobed, persistent. The umbel is hemispherical or nearly broom-like, loosely arranged. The pedicels of the tiny flowers are nearly equal in length, 0.5–1.5 cm, slightly longer in the fruiting stage, with longitudinal ridges, smooth, rarely with fine rough edges along the ridges, and without small bracts at the base. The flowers are white or pale red, rarely purplish-red. The outer tepals are ovate-oblong to broadly ovate-oblong, bluntly rounded at the tip, 2.8–4 mm long, 1.5–2.5 mm wide. The inner tepals are obovate-oblong, truncate or bluntly truncate at the tip, usually slightly longer, 3–4.2 mm long, 1.8–2.7 mm wide. The filaments are two-thirds the length of the tepals, basally connate and adnate to the tepals. The outer filaments are conical, sometimes slightly expanded at the base, slightly shorter than the inner ones. The inner filaments have their lower parts expanded into an ovate shape, with the expanded portion being about two-thirds the length of the filaments. The ovary is ovoid; the style does not extend beyond the tepals. Flowering and fruiting occur from July to September.