The tuber has a pair.

Visiting the Ben Than area in Dong Son commune, Tan Son district in late September – an area covered by old-growth forest within the Xuan Son National Forest system – we waded across a stream called Lao stream and visited the simple stilt house of Ms. Trieu Thi Thom, a Dao ethnic woman who has been gathering medicinal herbs for over 10 years. Just then, she was tilling the soil to plant "Dom Si" tubers at the foot of the mountain behind her house.

For a long time, the Dao people here have known about the wild yam root and used it as a valuable medicinal herb. They utilize both the root and leaves of the wild yam to make medicine. With its cooling properties and bitter taste, the wild yam root has the ability to detoxify, clear heat, and disperse stagnation. It is used to treat bone and joint problems, headaches, stomachaches, malaria, detoxify the body, and support liver health. In some areas, people use wild yam root to treat dysentery, stomach pain, chronic abdominal pain, and persistent insomnia. The leaves of the wild yam root are boiled in water and used as a bath for children to treat rashes and boils.

For the Dao people in Tan Son, the "dom" root is considered a "golden" medicinal herb because it is very rare and not easy to dig up. A vine-like plant with a light green stem 2.5-4m long, its horizontal tuberous roots growing underground, the "dom" root has a long, slender shape, resembling a hen incubating eggs, hence it is also called "Chicken Incubating Root".

To find this precious medicinal herb, from the early morning mist still blankets the villages, those searching for the wild yam will prepare a long knife, a shovel, a sack slung over their backs, and some food and drink, then they will go up Mount Can together to pick leaves and dig up the roots, returning home when it is already dark. Wild yam usually grows in old-growth forests, found in humid forest areas, on limestone mountains at an altitude of 300-800m, similar to the terrain of Mount Can, growing about 30cm deep underground. Thanks to the vines and leaves growing above the ground, the location of the root can be determined.

What's special about the "dòm" root is that it grows in pairs, so the Dao people often call it "male root" and "female root" in a fertility-related way. If you dig up one root, there will almost certainly be a second one growing symmetrically nearby. If you can't find a complete pair, after a while, the "dòm" root will bear fruit and seeds. The seeds fall and grow into baby roots. The way to distinguish them is that the female root is larger and rounder, while the male root is elongated and smaller.

In the past, before many people searched for the wild yam, the locals would often dig up tubers growing at the foot of the mountain. As more people learned about its medicinal properties, villagers began searching for it in the mountains, so now it's sometimes necessary to travel 1-2 kilometers through the forest to find and dig up a large tuber.

Trekking through forests and wading through streams, we had to strain our eyes to find precious medicinal herbs growing deep in the woods or on steep cliffs. Today was truly fortunate; on my first time venturing into the forest, I managed to dig up a wild yam.

“On rainy, humid days, the mountain paths are as slippery as grease, and my sisters and I have to grip the ground with our feet to walk. Sometimes we slip and fall after just a few steps, not to mention rocks rolling down; if we're not steady on our feet, we can also slip and fall. The most dangerous times are when we have to climb, encountering snakes, leeches, and mosquitoes that cling to our legs,” Thơm shared.

Despite regularly going into the forest, the locals here only manage to dig up about 6 wild yam tubers a month. Those who are lucky might only find 8 tubers in a month at most.

Typically, during their trips to the forest, the locals would gather some valuable medicinal leaves and wild fruits such as wild pineapple and mistletoe to sell at the market for people to use in traditional medicine. For the Dao people, having wild yam tubers grown at home is like having a precious medicine to save. Even if they can't sell them, the longer they grow them, the more valuable the tubers become, and when dug up and processed into medicine, they are very good for health.

Bao Thoa

Source: https://baophutho.vn/thu-cu-co-doi-219761.htm