Osmanthus preserves memories, provides livelihoods

On a campus in Guiyang, Guizhou province, last autumn, Zhao Jiangmei stood under an osmanthus tree and gave it a gentle shake. Golden blossoms drifted down like rain. She and her friends gathered the fallen flowers, washed and dried them, then layered them with sugar in jars.

"We sealed the memory of autumn in small jars," the 20-year-old said.

Zhao has come to see the osmanthus as a companion whose unchanging fragrance has accompanied her. This autumn, she hopes to sit under the tree to soak up some sun, breathe in the scent of the flowers and clear her mind.

That autumn, she also made osmanthus honey and wine. When she tasted them this spring, the flavor had softened but still carried the flower's sweetness.

"The wine was a little too sugary, with a faint osmanthus aftertaste, and the soaked flowers had turned amber," she recalled.

Autumn also brings osmanthus into the kitchen. Osmanthus cake, a soft, chewy treat made from glutinous rice flour and rice flour, is a classic. Another favorite, especially among people south of the Yangtze River, is lotus root stuffed with sticky rice and slow-simmered with sugar and osmanthus.

For Zhao, osmanthus is a way to preserve memories. For others, it is a lifelong career.

Zhu Mingchuan, vice-president of the Chengdu Flower Association in Sichuan province, is a second-generation osmanthus grower. His father began planting the trees in 1986, selecting varieties and raising seedlings to maturity. Zhu joined the family business after graduating from university in 2009 and decided it was worth carrying on.

"The osmanthus has a rich fragrance and delicate colors, and is loved by most people. In Chinese culture, it also symbolizes good fortune," the 38-year-old said.

In Chengdu, as in many other parts of the country, the first osmanthus flowers usually appear in late August or early September, Zhu said. The tree spends the summer in heat-induced dormancy, storing nutrients in its buds. When the Start of Autumn solar term arrives in August and temperatures begin to fall, the buds start to break dormancy.

A second, stronger flowering often follows in September, and a third may come later if the weather remains mild and humid. A heavy bloom can be triggered by plentiful rain and a drop in temperatures from above 30 C to around 25 C.

"In Chengdu, the first bloom signals the true arrival of autumn. Even when early autumn still feels warm, once the osmanthus blooms, temperatures have usually begun to fall," Zhu said.

How long the blossoms remain on the branches depends on the weather. In Chengdu this year, the first flowering was sparse, but sunny weather kept the flowers on the trees from Aug 22 to 31, he said.

Because the first bloom is sparse, little is harvested. A later bloom, usually around Mid-Autumn Festival, is denser and provides the main harvest. Golden and red osmanthus varieties flower heavily at that time, Zhu said.

However, the flowering pattern is not fixed. In Dali, Kunming and many other parts of Yunnan province, where the climate is mild and variable, osmanthus may flower once in the first half of the year, again in June or July, and sometimes even in winter, he said.

The flower's annual rhythm — its arrival with the first cool air of autumn — has long tied osmanthus to Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese calendar. Its flowering coincides with the time when families gather and the moon is at its fullest.