City Tree of Yuyao — Yulan Magnolia

The bynames of Yulan Magnolia are Southern magnolia and Magnolia grandiflora. The Yulan Magnolia is a kind of evergreen arbor belongs to Magnoliaceae. Its leaves are very thick and its flowers are white and fragrant. Yulan Magnolia is in favor of the wet and rich soil. People like its tall and straight trunk, its bright and green leaves and its big and white flowers.

City Flower of Yuyao — Rhododendra

Rhododendra is a kind of plant belonging to Wikipedea, Rhododendron. It has some nose rags as Azalea, Silktree, Melastoma candidum, Eriobotrya deflexa. According to the statistics, there are altogether 850 kinds of rhododendras in the world, and among which 650 kinds are in China. Many kinds of evergreen rhododendra, such as Yellow Cup Rhododendra, White Snow Rhododendra, Regiment Rhododendra, Wide-plant Rhododendra, have formed a dense rhododendra bosk. There is even a spectacular sight known as the Rhododendra Flower Sea, which covers more than 10 km. Because of its beautiful and splendid shapes and colors, the Rhododendra was ever praised by Bai Juyi (a famous ancient poet) as “beautiful as Xishi (the famous Chinese beauty in ancient China) and compared with it, lotus and peony are ugly”. So the Rhododendra has a famous reputation as “Xishi among all the flowers”.

City Fruit of Yuyao — Waxberry

Yuyao has the largest area and the longest history of planting waxberries. The planting history is about 2,000 years and according to the archaeological findings in Hemudu relics, waxberry has existed in the earth as early as 7,000 years ago.

Now, the planting area of waxberry is about 82,000 mou with the annual output about 20,000 tons. The planting area has extended to 19 towns of the city and a group of characteristic villages featuring waxberry planting have emerged, and Yuyao has won the reputation “ Yuyao’s waxberries are the best in the world”. In June of 1995, Yuyao was named as “ China’s Waxberry Town”.