Sugarcane is a tall and sturdy perennial herb. In biology, sugarcane is the stem of sugarcane, just like sweet potato, it is the stem of a plant, not the fruit. So from a botanical point of view, sugarcane is not a fruit. In daily life, it is understandable to say that sugarcane is a fruit. However, in academic papers, it is somewhat inappropriate to rashly classify sugarcane as fruit.

Sugarcane can be divided into fruit cane and sugarcane according to their uses. According to the shape, it can also be divided into sugarcane "Black King Kong", sugarcane "Black Green Gang" and sugarcane "White Jade Sugarcane". Fruit cane is a kind of sugarcane specially used for fresh food. It has the characteristics of easy tearing, less fiber, moderate sugar content, crisp stem, delicious juice, good taste, thick stem, long node and beautiful stem shape. Sugarcane, with high sugar content, is the raw material for sugar production, and is generally not used for fresh food in the market. Because of the coarse hard fiber and poor taste, it is only eaten fresh occasionally in the producing area.

Geographical distribution of sugarcane

The distribution of sugarcane is mainly between 33 north latitude and 30 south latitude, 25 south latitude, and the area is relatively concentrated. Sugarcane originated in India and is now widely planted in tropical and subtropical regions. The country with the largest sugarcane planting area is Brazil, followed by India, and China ranks third. Other countries with large sugarcane planting areas include Cuba, Thailand, Mexico, Australia and the United States.

The main sugarcane producing areas in China are mainly distributed in tropical and subtropical areas south of latitude 24, including Guangdong, Taiwan Province, Guangxi, Fujian, Sichuan, Yunnan, Jiangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Zhejiang, Hubei and Hainan 12 southern provinces. Since the mid-1980s, China's sugar producing areas have rapidly moved to western regions such as Guangxi and Yunnan. By 1999, the cane sugar production of Guangxi and Yunnan provinces has accounted for 70.6% of the whole country (excluding Taiwan Province Province).