Northeast China
More actions
| Northeast China | |
|---|---|
| ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000 | |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 46.37, 124.41 |
| Country | China |
| Provinces/States | Heilongjiang,Jilin,Liaoning,Inner Mongolia |
| Area | 1,240,000 km² |
| Growing history | |
| Earlier names | Manchuria |
| Dated accessions | 1918 |
| Dated news reports | 2025 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
The Northeast China growing region covers the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning and the eastern part of Inner Mongolia, up to China's borders with Russia, Mongolia and North Korea. In the early 20th century hemp was grown there for fibre and for oil-seed, and an American study of 1913 described two kinds grown in Manchuria, a tall fibre hemp and a short oil-seed hemp.[1]: 297 Police reports since 2020 describe cannabis growing wild in woodland, on wasteland and along roads in Jilin and eastern Inner Mongolia, and the police clear them.[2][3] Heilongjiang is a growing area of the region.
Geography
The region is drawn on whole provinces and prefecture-level units. It takes in the three north-eastern provinces and four units of Inner Mongolia that border them: Hulunbuir, Hinggan League, Tongliao and Chifeng. The rest of Inner Mongolia, from Xilin Gol westward, is not drawn in. The region covers about 1,240,000 km². Its northern and eastern edges follow the frontier with Russia, its north-western edge the frontier with Mongolia and its south-eastern edge the frontier with North Korea.
The early 20th-century sources call the region Manchuria. They name its provinces in the spellings of the time: Kirin for Jilin and Heilungchiang for Heilongjiang.[4]
Fibre and oil-seed hemp
In 1913 Lyster H. Dewey of the United States Department of Agriculture listed Manchuria among the lands where hemp was grown for fibre, and among the two, with China, where it was grown for oil-seed.[1]: 294 He described two kinds grown there. Hsien-ma, grown for fibre, reached 8 to 9 feet (about 2.4 to 2.7 m) and needed nearly 150 days from sowing to full maturity. Shem-ma, grown for oil-seed, reached 3 to 5 feet (about 0.9 to 1.5 m) and ripened its seed in less than 100 days, in compact heads at the tops of stalks whose branches stayed undeveloped. Dewey added that the two kinds were said to stay distinct in Manchuria, without crossing.[1]: 297 He compared them with the tall fibre hemp and the short oil-seed hemp of Russia.[1]: 299
The department's agricultural explorer Frank N. Meyer sent hemp seed from Manchuria that reached Washington in June 1907. His note on a sample from Wu-lu-kai reads: "A variety of hemp growing on the rather sandy lands around here. It has thin stalks and produces a strong kind of hemp, though not quite white of fiber." A second sample, from Wu-li-pu, was "said to be a strong, good hemp".[5] In 1910 he sent seed from Mukden (now Shenyang) of hemp called howma, "Grown in large quantities in Manchuria for the production of fiber".[6] In 1922 G. C. Hanson, the American consul at Harbin, sent seed of "a variety of hemp grown at Anda", from the crop of 1921–22, with other farm produce of Heilungchiang and Kirin prepared for a farm exhibition in Indiana.[4]
Wild stands
Between 2011 and 2016 Zhang Qingying and colleagues collected 25 wild populations of cannabis across seven Chinese provinces and regions, which the authors describe as the only areas where wild cannabis still grows in China. Three of the seven were Inner Mongolia, Jilin and Liaoning. The wild populations generally ranged from hundreds to several thousand plants. The study's two samples from Heilongjiang were landraces.[7] A checklist of Heilongjiang's wild plants published in 2022 lists cannabis among the province's invasive species.[8]
In a study of wild-growing and cultivated cannabis published in 2025, Manica Balant and colleagues found that the genetic group sister to the other two main groups of cannabis in their study consists of individuals from northern China, in the provinces of Jilin, Gansu and Inner Mongolia, and from eastern Mongolia.[9]
Eradication
Police reports from the region call wild cannabis, 野生大麻 (yěshēng dàmá), a drug-source plant, 毒品原植物 (dúpǐn yuán zhíwù), and describe its clearance. In a field survey reported in June 2020, officers of the Jingxin police station of the Hunchun forest police in Jilin found more than 8,000 seedlings in woodland. After examining the site and questioning local people they concluded that the plants were wild: "最终确定其为野生的大麻毒品原植物，排除了人为种植的可能" ("finally determined them to be wild cannabis drug-source plants, ruling out the possibility of human planting"). Clearing them took three days.[10] On a joint patrol reported in June 2025, Hunchun's forest police, local troops and the Hunchun forestry bureau found plants between 30 cm and 1.5 m tall scattered among the weeds of the forest, "完全处于自然生长状态，无任何人工培育痕迹" ("wholly in a state of natural growth, with no trace of human cultivation"). They pulled more than 8,000 in four hours and burned them.[11] Hunchun lies where China, Russia and North Korea meet. In September 2025 its police searched the wetland round Jingxin, woodland along the national road and idle plots beside village houses, and cleared more than 2,100 wild plants in two days. The head of the city's narcotics brigade, Ma Ning, said that grosbeaks eat the seed and pass much of it undigested at the edges of wetland, woodland and farmland, where it germinates.[3]
In July 2021 police at Manzhouli in Hulunbuir found more than 3,000 plants about a metre tall on uninhabited wasteland and in a shelterbelt in the Erka area. They reported that the stand "整片植物处于无规律生长状态，现场无人工种植迹象，属于自然生长" ("the whole stand was growing without pattern, with no sign of planting at the site; it was natural growth").[2] By mid-July 2025 police in Zhenlai County, in western Jilin, had cleared more than 3,000 wild plants that summer. On 1 July officers found a continuous stand of 1,589 beside the road west of Xinghua village, and on 8 July the Momoge police station cleared 1,500 more.[12] In Chifeng that July, police of Hongshan District searching with drones found wild hemp, which the report calls 野生工业大麻 (yěshēng gōngyè dàmá, "wild industrial hemp"), growing at many places along both sides of the roads, and cleared it.[13]
Licensed hemp
Industrial hemp is grown legally in Heilongjiang, where the provincial agriculture department calls it 汉麻 (hànmá). In 2020 the province grew 268,500 mu (about 17,900 hectares): 235,500 mu for fibre and 33,000 for flowers and leaves.[14] Growers register with the narcotics department of the county police under the province's narcotics control regulations, and buy seed of low-toxicity or non-toxic varieties (低毒、无毒) recognised by the province. For 2026 the department expected fibre hemp to be grown mainly around Qiqihar, Heihe, Suihua, Harbin, Jiamusi and Jixi.[15]
Growing Areas
| Growing Area | Country | Province |
|---|---|---|
| Heilongjiang | China | Heilongjiang |
Accessions
| Accession ID | Name | Collected | Locality | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pokrovsky 56 (1918) | Pokrovsky 56 herbarium specimens, environs of Hailar (1918) | Окрестности Хайлара (environs of Hailar) |
Recent news
| Article | Date | Category | Area | Locality | Plants |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| News:2025-06-30/Eradication/hunchun-forest-police-eradicate-more-than-8-000-wild-cannabis-plants-during-a-joint-patrol-yanbian-jilin | Eradication | 8,000 |
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Dewey, Lyster H. (1914). "Hemp". Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture 1913. Washington: Government Printing Office. pp. 283–346.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "呼伦贝尔市：满洲里市刑警大队成功铲除销毁3000余株大麻植株" [Hulunbuir: Manzhouli criminal police eradicate and destroy more than 3,000 cannabis plants]. 中国禁毒网 (in 中文). 27 July 2021. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "2100余株野生大麻两天清零！珲春公安揪出"飞鸟播种"背后的禁毒隐患" [More than 2,100 wild cannabis plants cleared in two days: Hunchun police trace the drug hazard behind bird-sown seed]. 澎湃新闻 (in 中文). 16 September 2025. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Bureau of Plant Industry (1924). Inventory of seeds and plants imported by the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction during the period from July 1 to September 30, 1922 (PDF) (Report). Washington: United States Department of Agriculture. p. 36. No. 72.
- ↑ Bureau of Plant Industry (1908). Seeds and plants imported during the period from July, 1906, to December 31, 1907: inventory no. 13 (PDF) (Report). Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletin. Washington: United States Department of Agriculture. p. 136. No. 132.
- ↑ Bureau of Plant Industry (1911). Seeds and plants imported during the period from April 1 to June 30, 1910: inventory no. 23 (PDF) (Report). Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletin. Washington: United States Department of Agriculture. p. 61. No. 208.
- ↑ Zhang, Q.; Chen, X.; Guo, H.; Trindade, L.M.; Salentijn, E.M.J.; Guo, R.; Guo, M.; Xu, Y.; Yang, M. (2018). "Latitudinal adaptation and genetic insights into the origins of Cannabis sativa L." Frontiers in Plant Science. 9 1876. doi:10.3389/fpls.2018.01876.
- ↑ Wang, Hongfeng; Dong, Xueyun; Mu, Liqiang (2022). 黑龙江省野生维管植物名录 [Checklist of tracheophyte in Heilongjiang Province]. 生物多样性 (in 中文). 30 (6) 22184. doi:10.17520/biods.2022184.
- ↑ Balant, Manica; Vitales, Daniel; Wang, Zhiqiang; et al. (2025). "Integrating target capture with whole genome sequencing of recent and natural history collections to explain the phylogeography of wild-growing and cultivated cannabis". Plants, People, Planet. 7 (6): 1771–1788. doi:10.1002/ppp3.70043.
- ↑ "发现野生大麻8000株 珲春森林公安及时铲除" [8,000 wild cannabis plants found and promptly eradicated by Hunchun forest police] (in 中文). 吉林省林业和草原局. 24 June 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Liu, Dong; Li, Yanguo (26 June 2025). "野生大麻林区疯长 吉林珲春森林公安铲除8000余株" [Wild cannabis runs riot in the forest: Hunchun forest police in Jilin eradicate more than 8,000 plants]. 中国新闻网 (in 中文). Retrieved 20 October 2026.
- ↑ "镇赉公安雷霆铲毒"零容忍" 筑牢禁毒安全防线" [Zhenlai police take a zero-tolerance line on drug-plant eradication]. 澎湃新闻 (in 中文). 白城市公安局. 15 July 2025. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Wang, Xin; Jia, Xinhe (17 July 2025). "赤峰市公安系统开展禁种铲毒专项踏查行动" [Chifeng public security carries out a special survey to stop planting and eradicate drug plants]. 赤峰日报 (in 中文). Retrieved 20 October 2026 – via 内蒙古新闻网.
- ↑ 黑龙江省农业农村厅 (27 December 2021). "关于印发《黑龙江省"十四五"特色经济作物发展规划》的通知" [Notice on issuing the Heilongjiang Province 14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Special Cash Crops]. 黑龙江省人民政府网 (in 中文). 黑农厅发〔2021〕329号. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
- ↑ "黑龙江省2026年纤维汉麻生产技术指导意见" [Technical guidance for fibre hemp production in Heilongjiang Province, 2026] (in 中文). 黑龙江省农业农村厅. 11 May 2026. Retrieved 3 October 2026.