As the weather cools down and autumn crops start to grow, the harvest season arrives in many parts of China. Farmers at a cultivation site in Hefei City, east China’s Anhui Province, are seen picking gorgon fruit on September 8. /VCG Photo

Known as qianshi or jitoumi in Chinese, it is a traditional Chinese medical and soup ingredient benefiting the spleen and stopping diarrhea. The aquatic plant is in season every fall around Mid-Autumn Festival. /VCG Photo

During the season for the fruit, farmers have to get up very early every morning, work in the water for five to six hours a day and stay up late at night taking kernels out of the thorny shell. /VCG Photo

Selling at a price of about 90 yuan (13 U.S. dollars) for 400-500 grams, the production of gorgon fruit kernels has become a new source of income for domestic farmers. /VCG Photo