栲 (kǎo): chinquapin (an evergreen tree)

Meanings

栲树的树皮可以制栲胶。

Kǎo shù de shùpí kěyǐ zhì kǎo jiāo.

The bark of the chinquapin can be used to make tanning extract.

栲木坚硬细密，适合做轮轴。

Kǎo mù jiānyìng xì mì, shìhé zuò lúnzhóu.

Chinquapin wood is hard and dense, suitable for axles.

memory

Wood radical 木 plus 考 (the sound). Think of an old, tested tree whose tough bark is worth harvesting for tanning.

radical

木 mù

tree; wood

The tree radical marks this as a kind of tree, telling the reader 栲 names a hardwood evergreen rather than a verb or abstract sense.

phonetic

考 kǎo

to test; examine

Purely phonetic here, lending the reading kǎo with no semantic input to the tree's meaning.

栲 kǎo