Ancient statues of Confucius often portray the noble wise-man holding “the peach of immortality” in his hand. While Confucius’ beloved fruit is often regarded as the ‘peach of immortality’, Black surmises, on his blog dragonvines.com that, “Kadsura or Dragon™ Vine Fruit, is the actual fruit of immortality of which Confucious so wisely expounded upon.” And many tribes in China agree, calling this noble berry, the “God Peach”,  “longevity berry” and ” fruit of the immortals. ”

Tribes across mountainous China have multiple names for the Dragon™ Vine fruit, including ‘black tiger balls’ ‘fortified meals’, ‘mountain Dragon™ Vine’, and “red diamond fruit”.

In 1992, Jerry Black reported the name given to him by villagers in remote Guizhou as the “The black dragon crossing”, and “God peach”, harkening back to Confucius’ “peach of immorality”.

Black states,  “When Katy Warren and I and introduced this fruit to the board of directors at World Variety Produce in Los Angeles; the largest distributor of exotic produce in the USA; we kept the species a secret and called it the ‘Dragon™ Vine’ since it was unknown outside of China at the time”.

Black tells us Maio tribes, for hundreds of years, have called it “fruit for a long life of beauty”