How to Write 菥 (xī) — Meaning “Pennycress (root character)”

Imagine a patch of "grass" (艹) that you need to "separate" (析, which means "to split") because pennycress plants are often found growing wild and need to be picked out. The visual of splitting grass can help link the top and bottom parts together.

When writing 菥, pay close attention to the top grass radical 艹: it should be written as three horizontal strokes with the middle one shorter, not as two cross strokes. A common mistake is making the lower part 析 too wide—keep the left side 木 narrow and the right side 斤 balanced so the overall shape stays compact.

Unlike 菥 (a plant name, pennycress), 兹 means "now" or "here" and is not a plant character. 苧 refers to ramie, a different plant used for fiber. Visually, 菥 has the lower part 析, while 兹 has a more compact top 䒑 (not 艹) and bottom 玄, and 苧 has 宁 below the grass radical.

菥 is rarely used alone in modern Chinese and appears only in the botanical name 菥蓂 (xī míng) for field pennycress. You might encounter it in traditional Chinese medicine texts or herbology, where 菥蓂子 (pennycress seed) is mentioned for its medicinal properties.

Common words containing 菥 include: 菥蓂 (xī míng) — Field pennycress; 菥蓂子 (xī míng zi) — Pennycress seed; 菥蓂草 (xī míng cǎo) — Pennycress herb.