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The character 荭, a phono-semantic compound, designates certain herbaceous plants, most notably water knotweed (Prince's feather). Its traditional form 葒 combines the plant radical 艹 on top with the phonetic 紅 (red); the simplified 荭 replaces 紅 with 红. The phonetic not only suggests the pronunciation but also alludes to the plant's reddish or pinkish flowers and its typical wetland habitat. The character is used almost exclusively in botanical, agricultural, and traditional medical texts.
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