How to Write 莨 (làng/liáng) — Meaning “henbane; (also refers to a type of silk)”

Think of a 'good' (良) plant (艹) that is used to make a beautiful silk fabric called 莨绸. Alternatively, imagine the poisonous plant henbane (莨菪) growing in a patch of grass, and 'lang' sounds like 'long' to help remember the pronunciation.

First write the top grass radical (艹) with three strokes: horizontal, then left vertical, then right vertical. Then write 良 below: dot, horizontal fold, vertical, horizontal, left-falling, right-falling, and finally a vertical hook. A common mistake is making the bottom part 良 too wide or off-center under the grass.

莨 has 良 (good) below the grass radical, while 兹 has 玄 (mysterious) below, and 苑 has 夗 (a bending component). Visually, 莨's bottom is more square and balanced, 兹's bottom has a pointed top, and 苑's bottom looks like a bent figure. Their meanings differ: 莨 refers to a plant or silk, 兹 means 'this' or 'now', and 苑 means 'garden' or 'park'.

莨 is not used alone in daily speech; it appears in specialized terms like 莨绸 (gambiered Guangdong gauze), a traditional silk fabric prized for its natural luster and often used in Chinese clothing. It also appears in 莨菪 (henbane), a toxic plant used in herbal medicine, and 薯莨 (dye yam), which provides a brown dye for 莨绸. This character is mostly encountered in textile and botanical contexts.

Common words containing 莨 include: 莨绸 (liáng chóu) — gambiered Guangdong gauze; 莨菪 (làng dàng) — henbane (a medicinal plant); 薯莨 (shǔ liáng) — Dye yam.