CJK character 蔯

蔯 is the plant character in an older herb name. Taiwan's Ministry of Education dictionary records it as an old name for 茵陳. Traditional accounts connect the name to a plant that survives winter and sprouts from old stems; the plant component signals 蔯's botanical sense.

The plant appears in 神農本草經, an early Chinese text about medicinal plants. The Japanese illustrated herbal 本草図譜 describes its medicinal young shoots in 1828. A 2018 Taiwan Food and Drug Administration report discusses differences in source plants and confusion with substitutes.