These plants witnessed our childhood. How many of them do you still remember?

Nobody in the world understands plants better than "us," right?

When we were kids, we had never seen a cell phone and never played on a computer. We just loved running wild in the yard all day long. When we got tired from running, we'd go tease the flowers and grass, and before we knew it, we had gotten to know so many interesting plants.

Today let's round up these lovely plants for everyone, and see whether you played with them the same way when you were little.

1 Garden Balsam

Everyone calls it "nail weed" (zhijiacao) because once the flowers are mashed up, they can dye your nails, and girls all love playing with it that way. The blooms are beautiful too. Red, purplish red, pink, white - there are many varieties, and it is very easy to grow.

After garden balsam finishes blooming, it forms seed pods. Once they are ripe, a light touch makes the pod burst open, and the seeds inside fly out all over the ground. It was exactly this trait that left such a deep impression on me.

2 Four O'Clock Flower

It can grow half a person's height, blooms every evening, and withers by daytime the next day, with the flowering period running from late July to early October. People usually like to call it "landmine flower" because its seeds look like mini landmines. The "landmine" seeds of the four o'clock flower are rich in white endosperm, which turns into a white powder after drying. Applied to the face, it can remove facial spots, moles and acne, which is why it is also called "white powder flower."

When we were kids, some of us would also pick the flowers and hang them on our ears as earrings. This was a game passed down from the older kids, and looking back now, that look was truly cringe-worthy.

The flowers of the four o'clock flower can give off a faint, lingering fragrance. Based on my years of experience dealing with four o'clock flowers, the yellow-flowering ones have the strongest scent, the light pink ones are a bit weaker, and varieties like deep pink and red have a scent so faint you can barely smell it. So when I was little, I only collected the seeds of yellow four o'clock flowers to plant in the yard.

3 Dandelion

No need to say much about this one, right? Even if you can't blow a "bull," you can always blow an "eagle"!

Of course, the old folks would dig them up and toss them in cold dishes - they can clear away internal heat.

4 The three essentials of playing house: goosegrass, chloris, and foxtail grass

I don't know what materials you used for playing house, but when I was little, these three grasses were indispensable for playing house.

First, goosegrass

It is very hard to pull up by the roots, so it is called goosegrass. When I was little, I would specifically collect goosegrass and strip the seeds off against the direction of growth to use as rice. I really admire my imagination back then.

Of course, the tough-guy way to play with goosegrass is not that. We all used this stuff to make cricket prods.

What can chloris be used for?

Look at how it looks - just right for making a broom.

Foxtail grass is the most common one

When I was little, the old folks taught me to weave little rabbits from foxtail grass. Now I only know how to weave the rabbit's head, and I've completely forgotten how to weave the body. You can also weave little bears, little dogs and such - I guess that technique has been lost by now. As an essential item for playing house, it was generally used to stand in for millet (this grass really is closely related to millet). It seems half the time playing house was spent playing cooking, so the plants used as grain had to be plentiful!

5 Poplar

What kind of play can you think of with poplar?

It's autumn - for a leaf-stem pulling battle, poplar leaf stems are the best!

By the way, how do you train an undefeated thousand-year-old stem?

First, you need to find poplar leaves with thick, sturdy leaf stems. Generally, the leaf stems of a mature white poplar are the thickest and biggest.

Also, you need to find old leaves that have been lying on the ground for a while, ideally ones that have turned slightly black. (Freshly fallen leaves have a lot of moisture and are brittle and break easily, but leaves that are too old and completely dried out won't work either.)

The most important step, hehehe, is to put them in your shoe and step on them for two days, so the leaf stems get stepped on to just the right toughness.

A thousand-year-old stem is definitely a sure-kill weapon, and you can't just bring it out casually. Once you do, its smell alone can intimidate your opponent! Trust me, you won't go wrong.

6 Cocklebur and Datura

These are the bad kids' secret hidden weapons!

Cocklebur seeds are about the size of a date pit. The hooked spines on the surface easily stick to clothes, and they were often put on girls' clothes and hair as pranks.

Datura fruit is as big as a walnut and even more prickly. During pretend gun battles, we'd throw them like hand grenades, but getting hit really hurt, so we never actually threw them straight at people.

7 Sichuan Pepper

Not many people know about this one.

If your yard had a Sichuan pepper tree, every year the tree would have citrus swallowtail butterfly larvae eating these leaves. After the caterpillars spun cocoons, you could take them home and wait for the butterflies to emerge. The citrus swallowtail was the biggest and most beautiful butterfly you could see when we were kids. I dreamed of raising one to play with, but since flying ones are hard to catch, I had to find their cocoons to raise instead.

In spring, the tender shoots of Sichuan pepper can be picked and stir-fried with eggs - the taste is not bad.

8 Japanese Hop

This stuff never left a good impression in my memory. Everyone calls it "thorny vine," and in summer, when you're wearing shorts and walking through the wild fields, you have to be careful. But it is precisely because of this hurtful trait that even now I still keep my distance from it.

It is precisely because these plants kept us company that our childhood was full of novelty and joy!

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