How to Write 蒌 (lóu) — Meaning “betel pepper”

Picture a leafy grass roof (艹) covering a small house (婁), with betel pepper vines coiling around it. Think of the word "lóu" sounding like "low" to remember the plant grows low or coils low. Or imagine "low" grass on a "low" house.

Start by writing the grass radical 艹 with three strokes: horizontal, vertical, vertical. The bottom part 婁 has nine strokes, beginning with a left-falling stroke, then a horizontal, and carefully writing the central 米-like structure before the final 女. A common mistake is making the top grass too wide, so keep it narrow to balance the complex bottom.

蒌 has the bottom part 婁 (a phonetic component), while 荷 has 何 (person plus a mouth), and 荸 has 孛 (a top that looks like 十 and 冖). Visually, 蒌 looks denser with more strokes in the lower half, and its meaning is limited to specific plants like betel pepper and wormwood, not common lotus or water chestnut.

Common words containing 蒌 include: 蒌蒿 (lóu hāo) — Seleng wormwood; 蒌叶 (lóu yè) — betel leaf; 采蒌 (cǎi lóu) — to gather mugwort or artemisia.