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The character 苁, with its traditional form 蓯, is a phono-semantic compound where the grass radical 艹 provides the semantic category, indicating a plant, and the component 从 (or 從) supplies the phonetic value. It is used almost exclusively in the botanical name for desert broomrape, a parasitic herb known in traditional medicine. Outside this specific botanical and pharmacological context, the character has no broad independent meaning, relying on the radical for its classification and the phonetic element for its pronunciation.
Etymology Hide
