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苕 (tiáo or sháo) is a phono-semantic compound: the grass radical 艹 (cǎo) classifies it as a plant, and 召 (zhào) suggests the pronunciation. Historically read as tiáo, it denoted the Chinese trumpet creeper, a vigorous climbing vine with brightly colored tubular flowers, and appeared in classical poetry to describe tall, flowering grasses. In modern southwestern dialects, pronounced sháo, it refers to the sweet potato, a regional shift from an ornamental vine to a staple crop.
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