Xanthoceras sorbifolium, the yellowhorn, shiny leaf yellowhorn, goldenhorn, or Chinese flowering chestnut, is a woody oil tree species in the family Sapindaceae, and the only species in the genus Xanthoceras. It is native to northern China in the provinces of Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Liaoning, Nei Monggol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, and Shandong. It is also cultivated in Russia, having been imported there since the 19th Century. The genus name Xanthoceras (which translates as "yellow horn") is considered to be the most basal member of the family Sapindaceae. The specific epithet sorbifolium refers to the leaves, which resemble those of the distantly related rowans (Sorbus). It was originally spelled sorbifolia, but this is a grammatical error that was corrected to sorbifolium under the ICBN. X. sorbifolium is an ancient tree species. It is said it can live up to 2,000 years. It is a sacred tree planted in temples in northern China, because there is no Ficus religiosa in the north. It is also used in traditional Chinese, Mongolian and Tibetan medicine. In Bencao Gangmu, it is called '天ä»Âæ (Heavenly Fairy Fruit)'. Tenacious X. sorbifolium can grow in snow and drought like in the Gobi Desert. It has very high alimentaire value, medicinal value, ornamental value and ecological value. In cultivation in the UK, X. sorbifolium has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
It is a large deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 8 m tall. The leaves are arranged alternately, 12âÂÂ30 cm long, and are pinnate, with 9âÂÂ17 leaflets, the leaflets 3âÂÂ6 cm long, with a sharply serrated margin. The flowers are 2âÂÂ3 cm in diameter, with five white petals, and are produced in erect panicles 10âÂÂ20 cm long in mid spring. The fruit is an oval leathery capsule 5âÂÂ6 cm diameter, which splits into three sections at maturity to release the 6âÂÂ18 seeds; the seeds are black, 1.5 cm in diameter, resembling a small horse chestnut seed. The shells of the fruits and seeds are very hard, so that they are best protected during the growth process. Generally, X. sorbifolium only blooms white flowers. In the process of multiple crosses performed by the '西åÂÂæÂÂå æÂÂåºå°/Northwest X. sorbifolium base' ("using 56 seeds of X.sorbifolium from all over the country to make them natural hybrids, in order to increase fruit yield"), unexpectedly, the flower color also changed from single to multiple.
X. sorbifolium has a long history and is distributed in a wide area, but few people knew about it. In 2000, no information about it could be found on the Internet. At this time, Ma Chengfu (马æÂÂç¦Â), a reporter who will be hailed as the "pioneer of the X. sorbifolium industry", began work on popularizing the species. His works "ãÂÂæµÂè¡ÂçÂÂç³ç¾Âæ²³ /The Bleeding Shiyang River" and "ãÂÂåªæÂÂÃ¥ÂÂè°Âæ¯è¯è¯ãÂÂ/Only Harmony Is the Best Medicine" have been compiled into college textbooks. Ma Chengfu was born in August 1968 in a poor farmer's family in Jingtai County, Gansu. Jingtai is located at the eastern end of the Hexi Corridor and south of the Tengger Desert. Since childhood, he suffered from drought, water shortage, and sandstorm in the desert climate, prompting him to find a tree species that can improve the ecological environment of his hometown and create economic benefits at the same time. To this end, he traveled all over the Hexi Corridor. During a visit in 2000, at the edge of the barren Tengger Desert, Ma suddenly saw some trees that grow well and bear fruit (at the time he did not know they were X. sorbifolium), which immediately raised his confidence again. Since then, he has embarked on a long journey of R&D and entrepreneurship of X. sorbifolium without fear of hardships. Two main reasons exist for why X. sorbifolium has not been developed into a commercial crop in the past: "difficulty in transplanting and low fruiting rate". "Ã¥ÂÂè±ä¸ÂæÂÂ/One thousand flowers one fruit" should be a pity for it in the past. After repeated failures, Ma solved these two problems and developed the high-yield and high-quality X. sorbifolium. The X. sorbifolium seedlings cultivated by Ma's team-'西åÂÂæÂÂå æÂÂåºå°/Northwest X. sorbifolium base' "have gone out of Gansu, spread to Northwest, Northeast, and North China, and introduced to Sichuan, Jiangsu, Hubei and other southern regions".
In the past two decades, X. sorbifolium has also attracted other R&D teams. For example, in Qiu County, Hebei, the planting area in 2018 has reached several thousand "亩/666.67m2". China's first X. sorbifolium research and development, processing, and sales enterprise also appeared in Qiu County, and achieved a multi-win situation of ecological, economic, and social benefits. In April 2021, the "X. sorbifolium Industry Development and Medicinal Value Summit Forum" was held in Qiu County, expecting to attract more entrepreneurs to develop the economic value and medicinal value of X. sorbifolium, and create an industry-university-research cooperation platform to promote scientific research and innovation achievements.