Nanmu Tree Character

Chinese 枏 is an older form of 楠, the nanmu tree name.

An early Chinese character dictionary, 《說文解字》, glosses 枏 as 梅 (“plum”) and analyzes the graph as 木, a tree component, plus 冄 as a sound component. Later dictionaries associate it with the evergreen nanmu tree. The glosses differ, so the tree name is safer than treating “plum” as its only meaning.

Where does 枏 appear in older writing?

It appears as a tree name in an inscription and classical works.

A bronze inscription from the mid-Western Zhou period records the personal name 仲枏父 with the related form 柟. 《史記》, a classical Chinese history, places 枏 among the trees of Jiangnan, the lands south of the Yangtze River; 《山海經》, an old geography-and-wonders text, lists it among trees on 虖勺之山. Together these records show a tree name carried by related written forms in inscriptions and classical literature.

How do I type 枏?

Type nan in a Chinese Pinyin keyboard, then choose 枏.

Phonetic input may show 楠 first because dictionaries record it as a variant of 枏. Cangjie is a shape-based Chinese input method; if your keyboard offers it, enter DBMM. Support for that route depends on the keyboard.