Gastrodia sesamoides is known in South Australia as the potato orchid (for its large starchy tubers), or as "cinnamon bells" - "the name comes from the spicy scent of the flowers, which although not the smell of cinnamon, is probably the closest smelling spice" 1) The small genus is widespread in South Australia and is one of the tallest of orchids on the Ozzie continent. The plant + inflorescence can reach up to 1 m length 2). New zealand has a number of forms and the genus is are present in Asia where it has a history in medecin.

The Oriental Herb Tienma (Gastrodia Tuber), By Ed
Excerpt from the New Zealand Native Orchid Group Journal Journal Number 89 December 2003

The oriental herb "Gastrodia Tuber" (Rhizoma Gastrodiae) is found in Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, China. It tastes sweet, has neutral properties, and is said to have the following medicinal effects: "Relieves convulsion, clams the liver (I think that should be 'calms' - Ed.) and relieves pain. Use in infantile convulsion (with uncaria stem, antelope's horn and scorpion), headache and light-headedness (with uncaria stem, scutellaria root and achyranthes root), chronic headache and recurrent migraine (with chuanxiong rhizome). Dosage & administration: 3-10g (boiled in water for oral use).

Dr Subhuti Dharmanand PhD, Director of the Institute for Traditional Medicine in Portland, Oregon wrote in 1998:

Gastrodia refers to the tuber of an orchid, Gastrodia elata (photo below right). This plant has an unusual requirement forsurvival: it must have the Armillaria mellea mushroom mycelia incorporated into the tuber in order to maintain its maturation and growth, and it requires another fungus, Mycena osmundicola, to sprout the seeds. When supplies of the crude gastrodia became rare in the 1970s, attempts at cultivating the herb repeatedly failed until this complex synergistic plant/mushroom relationship was determined. Then, cultivation became easy, though it was not until the late 1980s that an adequate cultivated supply of Gastrodia was developed.

Interestingly, the medicinal benefits of Gastrodia were found to be mainly the metabolites of the Armillaria mushroom. In other words, if one could grow the mushroom, the Gastrodia tuber could be dispensed with and one could use just the mushroom material in place of Gastrodia. This mushroom cultivation (by batch fermentation) was accomplished and the material was tested in the 1970s; today Gastrodia mushroom (Armillaria) is frequently used instead of cultivated Gastrodia. In the meantime, wild Gastrodia, along with all other wild orchids, has been put on the endangered species list.

Gastrodia was listed in the ancient Shennong Bencao Jing (ca. 100 A.D.) and was later classified by Tao Hong as a superior herb, meaning that it could be taken for a long time to protect the health and prolong life (as well as treating illnesses). It was originally called chiqian, meaning red arrow, because of its red stem shaped like an arrow. Later it was named tianma, or heavenly hemp (ma, usually translated as hemp, refers to many plants that have fibrous stems, such as the well-known mahuang).

The traditional use of Gastrodia is to calm internal wind and dispel invading wind, and invigorate circulation in the meridians; thereby treating headache, dizziness, vertigo, convulsions, paralysis, and arthralgia. In the book Chinese English Manual of Commonly-Used Herbs in Traditional Chinese Medicine, the three basic indications are reduced to this elaborated pair: Calm the liver wind: For syndrome of liver-wind stirring inside, such as infantile convulsion, tetanus, epilepsy, as well as dizziness and headache due to excess of liver yang or the attack of wind-phlegm; recently it is also used for treatment of neurasthenia, nervous headache, and hypertension; expel wind evil and alleviate pain: for migraine, arthralgia due to wind-dampness, numbness of extremities, and general fatigue.

According to research reports, the main active ingredients include gastrodin, a complex glycoside, plus vanillyl alcohol and vanillin, which, as their names suggest, are related to the flavour vanilla (vanilla comes from the fruit of another orchid, Vanilla planifolia, and the primary flavor is vanillin, which is synthetically produced as the standard flavor substitute). Vanillin has been shown to have anticonvulsive effects. There have been numerous other compounds identified in both Armillaria and the gastrodia tuber, with roles that are not yet established.

The gastrodia mushroom, Armillaria (also listed as Armillariella), is known in China as tianma mihuanjun. Like many other medicinal mushrooms, Armillaria contains immune-enhancing polysaccharides, but the amount of the gastrodia mushroom usually ingested is not sufficient to provide a substantial immune-enhancing action. Gram for gram, the armillaria mushroom is more potent than the gastrodia tuber, mainly because it is the primary source of the active constituents. An exact quantitative comparison has not been determined, and may vary with the different therapeutic applications, but, generally speaking, the dosage of armillaria to be used is about half that of gastrodia tuber.

Because these products are safe to use, armillaria can be used in the same amount as the gastrodia rhizome it replaces in order to attain superior effects. Gastrodia tuber is traditionally given in decoction in doses of 3-10 grams per day; the gastrodia mushroom (fermentation product) or gastrodia tuber is given in the form of a powder in doses of 1.0-1.5 each time, 2-3 times per day (total dosage of 2.0-4.5 grams/day).

According to Icones of Medicinal Fungi, Armillaria fermentation products "are found to produce satisfactory effect in treatment of dizziness caused by hypertension, insufficient blood supply to the arteries' cone base, Meniere's syndrome, as well as functional disorders in autonomic nervous system. They are also effective in improving numbed limbs, insomnia, tinnitus, epilepsy, vascular headache, and apoplectic sequela (post-stroke syndrome)."

The Advanced Textbook on Traditional Chinese Medicine and Pharmacology mentions that "This herb is mild, and can subdue hyperactive liver yang, eliminate wind, and remove obstruction in the collaterals, and is indicated for all kinds of wind syndromes, either cold or heat type or due to internal or external wind. For such cases, it is combined with other herbs according to the specific conditions. It is an important herb to treat dizziness." Examples of combining gastrodia with other herbs include these, from the Textbook: For dizziness and headache due to hyperactive liver yang, combine with uncaria and haliotis. For upward disturbance of wind-phlegm, combine with pinellia and atractylodes. For migraine, combine with cnidium. For convulsion due to irritation by liver wind, combine with antelope horn and uncaria. For tetanus (tonic convulsion, a wind-phlegm disorder due to external wind) combine with arisaema and siler. To relieve wind and remove obstruction in the collaterals (luo vessels), producing rheumatic pain and numbness of the limbs, combine with chin-chiu, chiang-huo, and achyranthes.. and they say doctors talk mumbo-jumbo.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Location
Gastrodia cunninghamii													New Zealand
Gastrodia minor													New Zealand
Gastrodia "long column" agg													New Zealand
Gastrodia aff sesamoides													New Zealand

Detailed data: Aggregated observation dates from the GBIF.org network.
A colored month means an observation in habitat or collection date of a herbarium specimen with flower or inflorescence. The number refers to the year of last observation or collection.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Location
Gastrodia orobanchoides							1961						India
Gastrodia sesamoides	1951												Australia

World Checklist for Gastrodia. With the permission of the Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Published on the Internet
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