蓼 (liǎo): smartweed (Polygonum)

Meanings

1 smartweed (Polygonum)
2 knotweed; a genus of aquatic or marsh plants

Characters

蓼

liǎo

smartweed; Polygonum plant

Examples

河边长满了蓼草。

Hébiān zhǎng mǎn le liǎo cǎo.

The riverbank was covered with smartweed.

蓼蓝是古代提取靛蓝染料的植物。

Liǎo lán shì gǔdài tíqǔ diànlán rǎnliào de zhíwù.

Polygonum tinctorium was the plant used in ancient times to extract indigo dye.

Tips

history

蓼蓝 (Polygonum tinctorium) has been grown in China for thousands of years to make indigo dye for cloth. 蓼 also turns up in classical poetry as an image of reed-fringed marshland.

register

Everyday reading is liǎo, the marsh plant. A second reading lù means 'tall and luxuriant (of growth)' and survives almost only in the classical 诗经 title 蓼莪, a lament for one's parents. Outside that allusion the character is read liǎo.

Components

radical

艹 cǎo

grass; plant (top-form of 艸)

Grass-top radical, the compressed top form of 艸, the indexing radical. Smartweed is a marsh plant with peppery leaves and tight flower spikes, so the radical does direct semantic work, placing 蓼 in the botanical family with 花 flower, 草 grass, 莲 lotus.

phonetic

翏 liù

flying high; long feathers (here phonetic)

Bottom 翏 supplies the sound, liù shifting to liǎo. It originally pictured long feathers blown by the wind (羽 over a body graph) and meant 'soaring', a faint visual fit for the upward-thrusting flower spikes of smartweed. The same phonetic anchors 戮 (to slay), 缪 (error), 谬 (absurd).