Yongping Prickly Ash

Yongping Prickly Ash

　　Prickly ash is one of the major high-quality specialty products produced in Yongping and a high-economic-value economic forest fruit. Prickly ash trees can live for 30 to 40 years, and with proper management, they can yield economic benefits within two years of planting.

　　Yongping prickly ash is large, bright red, glossy, thick-shelled with substantial flesh, and boasts a pure and rich fragrance as well as a pleasantly numbing and refreshing taste. It is a highly popular seasoning. The prickly ash oil made from it, when used to flavor Sichuan and Yunnan dishes, gives them a numbing, spicy, fragrant, and mellow taste. In addition to being edible, it can also be used in traditional medicine, offering benefits such as improving vision, relieving pain, killing insects, and dispelling cold. The seeds of prickly ash, known as pepper pips, have the effect of promoting water circulation and reducing swelling.

　　Yongping County is one of the main production areas of prickly ash in Dali Prefecture, accounting for over 40% of the prefecture’s total output. The main producing areas include Yilu, Jinhe, Gufu, Chuyipu, Dapington, Guanying, Lizishu, and Wenku. These regions feature a humid climate, good sunlight conditions, undulating rocky terrain, dense shrubbery, and large diurnal temperature variations—ideal conditions for the cultivation and growth of prickly ash. In recent years, the production of prickly ash has seen significant development. The county Party committee and government have prioritized the development of economic forest fruits as a key component of ecological agriculture. As a result, the planted area has gradually expanded, and the product is now sold both within and outside the province, winning widespread popularity among consumers.

　　Source: Dali Prefecture Tourism Development Management Committee