The mallow/sunflower symbolizes loyalty in Chinese culture.
Tips
usage
葵 alone appears mainly in compounds: 向日葵 (sunflower, literally 'faces-the-sun mallow'), 葵花 (sunflower), and 冬葵 (winter mallow). It is rarely used alone in modern speech.
Grass radical at top marks 葵 as a plant - sunflowers and mallows are tall annuals. Same radical groups it with 花, 草, 菜 and most plant-name chars; the cap shape evokes leaves spreading above the plant's stalk below.
癸 supplies the sound - guǐ to kuí - through an Old Chinese onset shift typical of velar phonetics. Memory hook: the four-armed 癸 looks like sunflower seed-rays radiating from the disc, matching what the plant the radical marks looks like in bloom.
