How to distinguish the wild Gastrodia elata from the artificially cultivated Gastrodia elata

How to distinguish the wild Gastrodia elata from the artificially cultivated Gastrodia elata?

Gastrodia elata is distributed in tropical, subtropical, temperate and cold temperate mountains. In China, wild Gastrodia elata is widely distributed in Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Hubei, Gansu, Anhui, Henan, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangxi, Jilin, and Liaoning etc..

Wild Gastrodia elata are not good looking in appearance and uneven in the size. In terms of efficacy, wild Gastrodia elata is much better than home-grown Gastrodia elata. Wild Gastrodia elata has a strong smell due to its high content of gastrodin, commonly known as "horse urine smell", which can persist for a long time after drying, and it is brittle and easy to break. Wild gastrodia elata has the dense horizontal loops, and the surface is arranged with dot pattern. The wild gastrodia elata generally has no more than 12 knots, and the pitting spots are relatively sparse, while the home-grown gastrodia elata has a intensive pitting spots.

Wild Gastrodia elata includes winter Gastrodia elata and spring Gastrodia elata. The winter Gastrodia elata is harvested when it is not out of the tip. The upper part is slightly pointed, and there are reddish-brown dry spores on the top, commonly known as "parrot mouth". When it is unearthed, it is harvested as the spring Gastrodia elata.

The wild gastrodia elata has a "toad skin" and is mostly black. Due to the influence of the external environment, the wild gastrodia elata is not as big as the artificially cultivated ones, and it appears not as uniform as the artificial ones. The price of wild Gastrodia elata is about ten times or more than that of home-cultivated Gastrodia elata.

The artificially cultivated Gastrodia elata is relatively uniform in size, slightly larger in shape, oblate and thinner, mostly similar to the long strips, with fine and dense wrinkles, and mostly retains the reddish-brown dry spores. The appearance is thinner and whiter in color. More transparent, solid, and not easy to break

In addition to the pure wild and artificial cultivation, Gastrodia elata has also a kind of near-wild Gastrodia elata, which is between wild and artificial species. It is yellowish white in appearance. The body is wide, straight, and flat. The price is slightly more expensive than artificially cultivated Gastrodia elata.