Xanthium sibiricum, a plant from The Book of Songs.

It's no good reading "Picking your ears" in The Book of Songs and Guo Feng Juan Er. Aroused my curiosity, out of interest, I bought the delicate plants in my hand and lamented that the "curly ear" in the article is a common plant in the field-Xanthium sibiricum.

Living in the countryside when I was a child, I was no stranger to weeds in the field. I caught ground seedlings, wormwood, prickly thorns and old beef tendons ... many of them were delicious for domestic sheep and rabbits, but when I went to mow the grass in the field, I hated Xanthium sibiricum. Its plants are taller, its stems are tougher, and its seeds are like jujube pits with clusters of thorns on them. It hurts when I accidentally catch them. Those thorns not only prick the hand, but also have barbs at the top. They can be hung anywhere and need special selection to be picked.

My observation of plants is not too detailed, only the seeds of Xanthium sibiricum can leave a deep impression on me. According to records, the seed of Xanthium sibiricum is called "Xanthium sibiricum", which is toxic, but it can dispel wind, enlighten resuscitation, activate collaterals and relieve pain, especially for treating wind-cold headache, rheumatism paralysis, stuffy nose, bad smell and frequent runny nose, and is also called "Passepartout". The knowledge gained from books is always far away, but sometimes what happened around us is still fresh in my memory. A few years ago, I accompanied a Shandong businessman to visit his wind power generation project in the western hilly area of Yongnian. The driver who accompanied me saw Xanthium everywhere, and he was as excited as an old friend who met after a long separation. We looked at the terrain, and he picked Xanthium sibiricum beside the car. He couldn't find anything to put on, so he filled a cup with his own big plastic cup. We asked him what was the use of picking this. He said that he drives outside all the year round, eats irregularly and has stomach trouble. This thing is baked in a casserole and ground into foam to drink, which can cure stomach trouble.

I don't remember where I read a short article called Xanthium sibiricum. The author said that he saw a Xanthium sibiricum with elegant red flowers in the gap next to the flower bed on campus. I don't think he wrote Xanthium sibiricum. Botanically, Xanthium sibiricum belongs to tubular subfamily of Compositae, with a flower head and a spherical male flower shape of 4-6 mm; The female flower is oval, about 3 mm long, and the male inflorescence covers the female inflorescence ... I'm afraid its structure can only be seen by borrowing a magnifying glass? According to folklore, Xanthium sibiricum "blooms in the middle of the night, withers at dawn, and there is nothing on earth". How tenacious will people who can observe and record plant characteristics be?

A large number of data show that the whole life cycle of Xanthium sibiricum from seedling to adult, from leaf to fruit plant is toxic, and the newly grown seedlings are the most toxic. When I was a child, my grandfather would turn over the grass cut in the spring, pick out some grass that the sheep could not eat and throw it into the toilet for fertilization. Xanthium should also have it. According to this inference, animals can't eat poisonous weeds, and people won't eat them. Then the woman in the Book of Songs "picked ears" by the roadside, and she could only express her feelings by borrowing things-spring came, and the woman picking weeds in the field thought of the origin of ear seeds from several ear seedlings. Must have stuck to other people or animals before coming to this place? If I were a seed with curly ears, I could stick to my lover and take myself anywhere in the world if he wanted. ...

In this case, the annoying xanthium in the field seems to be less boring, although I still don't like it very much.