A complete guide to plants that were common in childhood but whose names we could not say, now we finally know what they are called

If you grew up in the countryside, you must still remember those all kinds of little flowers and grasses in the fields when you were a child. Can you still recall their names now? Today, let us recall them together.

01. Black nightshade: both the berries and leaves can be eaten. After the berries turn purple, they can be eaten directly, sour and sweet, but the leaves contain a large amount of alkaloids and must be cooked thoroughly.

02. Datura: wild, all-white flowers, tubular. Capsules grow upright, with hard prickles. It often grows in wasteland, dry land, beside houses, sunny slopes, forest edges and grassland. It likes warm, sunny and well-drained sandy loam. It has medicinal or ornamental value.

03. Qingma (Abutilon theophrasti): especially common in fields. The seeds burst out in piles, and the mature stem bark is a raw material for making ropes and packaging supplies.

04. Cocklebur: it has many hard spines. When we were children, boys often stuck it to girls' hair, and it almost made you want to cry. Perhaps you do not know that the whole plant is toxic (kaurene glycosides), with the fruit, especially the seeds, being more toxic.

05. Xiaojii (field thistle): in Shandong it is commonly called qiqicai, and the character qi should be a sound shift from the character ji. In Fengtian it is commonly called qiangdaocai, because it is as prickly as a spear or knife. Both its roots and stems can be used, and the nature of the roots is especially good. Cut fresh ones open, pound them into a paste, take the natural juice and take it with boiled water. If used in a decoction, it must not be boiled for long; it is best to preserve its fresh nature, and after about four or five boils, take the liquid and drink it. Also, when insects grow inside its stems, galls form, shaped like small jujubes, and their ability to cool the blood is even stronger. If you take more than ten fresh ones, pound them into a paste, and take them mixed with boiled water, it is especially effective for treating vomiting blood and nosebleeds caused by heat. When using it, it is best to choose the tender and white ones growing in farm fields.

06. Goosegrass: its root system is extremely developed, and its stems and leaves are tough. The whole plant can be used as feed, and it is also an excellent soil-conserving plant. The whole herb boiled in water and taken can help prevent and treat Japanese encephalitis.

07. Hemisteptia lyrata: an annual herb, 30-100 cm tall. Flowering and fruiting period is from March to August. It grows on slopes, in valleys, plains, hills, forest edges, under forests, grassland, wasteland, fields, by rivers and roadsides, and is commonly found in these places. Other names: scissors grass, lime vegetable, pompon, bitter langtou, glutinous rice vegetable. Its flowers look very much like those of field thistle, and for a time they could not be told apart.

08. Field bindweed: it looks especially like morning glory, but the leaves are different. Its leaves are willow-shaped, while morning glory leaves are palmate. It is as lovable as morning glory.

09. Crabgrass: a weed, similar to goosegrass, with roots spreading into patches. It is an annual herb, up to 80 cm tall, with leaf sheaths shorter than the internodes, linear-lanceolate leaf blades, rounded bases, relatively thick margins, slightly rough, and stems upright or slanting. The lower stem nodes take root when touching the ground, spreading into patches and making it hard to pull out.

10. Japanese hop: also called lecao, heicao, or mage vine. The plant grows 1-5 m long, is dioecious, and usually grows in groups. There are fine backward hooks on the stems and leaf stalks, and it is easy to get scratched by just touching it.

11. Barnyardgrass: the most common wild grass, extremely similar in appearance to rice. It resembles rice, but its leaf blades are hairy and astringent and lighter in color. The "bai" in "baijiazi" (spendthrift) evolved from barnyardgrass, because it competes with rice for nutrients, but it is also good feed for horses, cattle and sheep.

12. Sun spurge: also called five clouds, cat's-eye grass, or five-phoenix grass. Anyway, it looks quite nice, and the whole herb is used as medicine. Collect the whole herb in spring and summer, dry it in the sun, and use it as medicine.

13. Kochia: also called broom vegetable or broom seedling, a big fluffy ball. Kochia can adapt to many kinds of soil, including sandy, gravelly and clayey soil, and can grow in mountain forests, wasteland, field edges and roadsides.

14. Motherwort: common in the wild, but unexpectedly it is the famous panacea for gynecological diseases. Collect it in summer when it grows luxuriantly and the flowers are not fully open. Its taste is pungent and bitter, and its nature is cool. It invigorates blood, removes stasis, regulates menstruation and reduces water retention, and treats women's irregular menstruation, threatened miscarriage and difficult labor, retention of the afterbirth, postpartum dizziness, blood stasis abdominal pain, profuse uterine bleeding and spotting, blood in urine, bloody diarrhea, and carbuncles and sores.

15. Plantain: cold-resistant and drought-resistant, with no strict requirements for soil, and it grows well in warm, moist, sunny, sandy fertile soil. Unexpectedly, like motherwort, it is also a common Chinese herbal medicine.

16. Rehmannia: also a famous Chinese herbal medicine. It is named rehmannia because its underground tuberous root is yellowish-white. Its root is one of the traditional Chinese medicines, first recorded in Shennong Bencao Jing. According to processing methods, it is divided in medicinal materials into fresh rehmannia, dried rehmannia and prepared rehmannia, and their medicinal properties and effects also differ considerably. According to the effect classification in Zhonghua Bencao, fresh rehmannia is a heat-clearing and blood-cooling medicine; prepared rehmannia is a tonic medicine. In addition, rehmannia blooms in early summer, with several large, pale red-purple flowers, and has good ornamental value.

17. Sickle senna: still a Chinese herbal medicine! Cassia seed is its seed!

18. Fleeceflower root: again a Chinese herbal medicine, and the plant most often mythologized, almost as famous as ginseng. Zhang Guolao became an immortal after eating its tuberous root.

19. Mapao melon: generally, rural children have all eaten it, right? The melons vary in size, the largest like a goose egg and the smallest like a button. The melon flavor can be fragrant, sweet, sour or bitter.

20. Puncture vine: one of the important "weapons" of childhood, only we did not know that it is also one of the Chinese medicinal materials. Its fruit used as medicine can calm the liver and improve eyesight, disperse wind and invigorate blood.

21. Inula flower: it is also a Chinese herbal medicine. It looks like wild chrysanthemum, and is also called lvercao or baiyecao. When we were children, we often tied it into a bunch, and it looked very nice.

22. Horseweed: not unfamiliar, right? It is still a Chinese medicinal material!

23. Wild oat: also called bell wheat. It looks like oats, but it is not of much use.

24. Mock strawberry: it looks like a wild strawberry, but it is called snake berry, and it is a Chinese herbal medicine for treating venomous snake bites.

25. Garden balsam: I do not know whether you believed this rumor when you were little: crush it and apply it to your nails to dye them. Anyway, the editor really did this.

26. Autumn zephyrlily: often seen, but I never knew its name. Only after searching Baidu did I learn it is called "autumn zephyrlily."

27. Cape gooseberry: in some places it is also called huaguniang. When the fruit is ripe, it is sour and sweet, very delicious. It is sold now too, only without the sweet taste of childhood. It is not that it has changed, but that our sense of taste has changed.

28. Purslane: still a Chinese herbal medicine. Of course, animals love to eat it, and people love to eat it too. Just do not let animals eat too much of it, as it easily causes diarrhea.

29. Lambsquarters: one of the famous tasty wild vegetables. Mix it with flour, then steam it in a pot, and it is unbelievably delicious.

30. Cnidium monnieri: small white umbrella-shaped flowers, also a famous Chinese herbal medicine, and an excellent product for strengthening yang.

31. Globe amaranth: also called hundred-day red or fireball flower. It is an annual upright herb in the Amaranthaceae family, Gomphrena genus, 20-60 cm tall; flowering and fruiting period is from June to September. The flower color is bright and glossy, and after the flowers dry they do not wither and remain unchanged for a long time, hence the name globe amaranth.

32. Mugwort: mugwort, the whole herb is used as medicine. It has effects such as warming the meridians, removing dampness, dispelling cold, stopping bleeding, reducing inflammation, relieving asthma, relieving cough, preventing miscarriage and resisting allergies.

33. Wild cockscomb: the color is very bright, but it is not as beautiful as cultivated ones.

34. Asiatic dayflower: it blooms small blue flowers, very special. It is also a common Chinese herbal medicine, sweet in taste, slightly bitter, and cold in nature. It can clear heat, detoxify and promote urination. It is a good medicine for reducing swelling and promoting urination, and for clearing heat and detoxifying.

35. Red wood sorrel: it is also a Chinese herbal medicine, clearing heat and detoxifying, dispersing stasis and reducing swelling, and regulating menstruation. For external use, it treats venomous snake bites, bruises, carbuncles and sores, and burns and scalds. It is widely planted in gardens. It can be arranged in flower beds and flower borders, and is also suitable for large-scale planting as ground cover and for clump planting in gaps. It is also a good material for potted plants. (

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