How to Write 芄 (wán) — Meaning “Metaplexis (a plant genus)”

Imagine a grassy plant (艹) growing small round pills (丸) on its leaves. The pinyin wán sounds like "one" but you can think of "wan" as in "wan-der" through a field of these plants. This visual of grass covering a round ball helps recall the shape and meaning.

Write the top part 艹 first: horizontal stroke, another horizontal, then a vertical. Then write 丸: start with a left-falling stroke (丿), then a horizontal, another left-falling, and finish with a dot. Common mistake is writing 丸 like 九 (nine) — remember 丸 has a dot at the end, not a hook.

芄 has 丸 below the grass radical, while 艺 has 乙 (a hook shape) and 艻 has 力 (strength). 艺 is very common and means art, but 芄 is rare and only names a plant. Visually, 芄 looks like grass covering a round object, whereas 艺 has a curved tail and 艻 has a straight bottom.

芄 appears mainly in botanical terms like 芄兰 (Metaplexis japonica) and in classical Chinese texts about herbs. Most modern speakers rarely encounter this character outside of specialized plant guides or traditional medicine references. It is not part of the HSK vocabulary list.

Common words containing 芄 include: 芄兰 (wán lán) — Metaplexis japonica; 芄兰叶 (wán lán yè) — Metaplexis leaf; 芄兰花 (wán lán huā) — Metaplexis flower.