What Kind of Grass Is Wula Grass? A Complete Guide
Wula grass, also known as wula grass, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the genus Carex of the family Cyperaceae. It grows in swamps in forest regions or in the meadow swamps of the Sanjiang Plain in China, and can still grow at an altitude of 3460 m. It is mainly distributed in the Changbai Mountains of Northeast China and south of the Outer Khingan Range (including Sakhalin), and can be used as medicine. Its main effects are removing odors and deodorizing, promoting meridian circulation and activating collaterals, eliminating fatigue, improving blood microcirculation, and enhancing immunity. Together with ginseng and marten fur, it is known as one of the Three Treasures of Northeast China.
Wula grass has short rhizomes that form tussocks. The culms are densely tufted, 20-50 cm tall, 1-1.5 mm wide, slender, trigonous, and hard. The basal leaf sheaths have no blades, are brown, glossy, and slightly fissured or fibrous. The leaves are shorter than or nearly as long as the culms, bristle-like, folded inward, hard, and rough along the margins. The lowest bract is bristle-like and sheathless, while the upper ones are scale-like. There are 2-3 spikelets, close together; the terminal 1 is male, cylindrical, and 1.5-2 cm long. The lateral spikelets are female, spherical or ovate, 0.5-1.2 cm long and about 5 mm wide, with densely arranged flowers.
The male flower scales of Wula grass are blackish brown or pale brown, with obtuse tips. The female flower scales are ovate-elliptic, obtuse at the tip, about 2.8-3.5 mm long, dark purple-black or reddish brown, lighter in the middle of the back, with 3 inconspicuous veins, and with narrow white membranous margins. The perigynia are as long as or slightly longer than the scales, ovate or elliptic, flattened-trigonous, 2.5-3 mm long, pale grayish green, densely covered with papillose projections, with 5-6 veins, slightly rounded at the base, with a short stalk, and abruptly contracted at the apex into a short cylindrical beak, with the beak orifice entire. The nutlets are tightly enclosed in the perigynia, obovate-elliptic, flattened-trigonous, brown, 1.5-2 mm long, with a short stalk, rounded at the apex; the style base is not enlarged, and there are 3 stigmas. The flowering and fruiting period is June to July.
The leaves of Wula grass are slender and soft, and the fibers are tough and not easily broken. It can be used as a good material for straw sandals, straw mattresses, artificial cotton, fiberboard, straw woven handicrafts, papermaking, and more. It can also provide warmth and can be used to stuff wula shoes, with the effect of keeping warm and protecting against the cold. The people in the mountainous areas of Northeast China are very fond of it. On the surface, Wula grass looks very ordinary, with slender stems and leaves, green, growing in clusters, and greenish brown flower spikes. However, for hundreds of years, this ordinary little grass has been closely related to the lives of the people in the Changbai Mountain area and has become an indispensable necessity. Every autumn, people go to the mountains to cut Wula grass, dry it, and store it. In winter, they stuff it into shoes to prevent their feet from getting frostbite.
In winter, temperatures in Northeast China are relatively low, and ordinary cotton shoes are hard-pressed to keep out the cold. In the old days, people in the Guandong region used leather sewn and stuffed with softened Wula grass to make cold-weather shoes, which were the beloved “straw footwear” of the poor in the north. Wula is also written as “wula” and “wula,” and its name comes from the transliteration of the Manchu term for leather boots. It is a kind of “local leather shoe” worn by Northeasterners in winter. The stems and leaves of the original plant are pounded and then placed into felt boots; they are breathable and moisture-proof and can keep out the cold, and were formerly known as one of the “Three Treasures of Guandong.” Before use, Wula grass also had to be pounded with a wooden stick; after being softened, it would not hurt the feet. There are many wild grasses in Northeast China that resemble Wula grass in shape, but only Wula grass has the best warmth retention.