荠, a polyphonetic character, pronounced qí and jì.

1. jì: used as a noun, such as shepherd's purse, which is a general name for the plant shepherd's purse in the class Dicotyledon, Brassicaceae, and genus Shepherd's purse. It is an annual or biennial herb, 10-50 cm tall, hairless. , with simple or branched hairs; stems erect, single or branched from below.

2. qí: used as a noun, such as water chestnuts, also known as water chestnuts, water chestnuts, black taro, wood chestnuts, etc. It belongs to the monocotyledonous Cyperaceae family and is a perennial herbaceous plant.

Shepherd's purse, a herbaceous plant of the Brassicaceae family. The whole body is usually five hairy, and the stem is upright; the leaves growing at the base are rosette-shaped, and the leaflets at the base are longer and feathery; the inflorescence is terminal and axillary, the petals of the florets are equal in length, and the petals are white and oval; the fruit is inverted triangle or Heart-shaped triangle; the flowering and fruiting period is from April to June. The name shepherd's purse first appeared in Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica".

Shepherd's purse is native to China and is distributed or cultivated throughout the country. It requires a cool and sunny climate, strong cold tolerance, and the soil selection is not strict, but it grows best in fertile, loose soil. Shepherd's purse is divided into two types: plate-leaf shepherd's purse and loose-leaf shepherd's purse. The propagation method of shepherd's purse is seed propagation.

Shepherd's purse has high medicinal value and is known as "licorice in vegetables". "Famous Doctors" records that shepherd's purse has the effects of harmonizing the spleen, diuresis, hemostasis and improving eyesight. It is often used to treat postpartum hemorrhage, Menorrhagia. Shepherd's purse also has high nutritional value. It is rich in vitamin C and carotene, which helps to enhance the body's immune function.

Shepherd's purse is also called "wild vegetable", which is a life-oriented name. "Shepherd's purse" reflects the cultural nature. The two oldest poetry collections in China, "The Book of Songs: Gu Feng" and "Chu Ci: Sad Returning Wind" "Shepherd's purse" can be seen in "Shepherd's purse", which is used as a metaphor for a gentleman and shows that a gentleman has a noble ambition. The shepherd's purse symbolizes resistance to severe cold, forbearance, low-key and unassuming, and many literati have written tributes to it. There has been a folk custom of eating shepherd's purse flowers and boiled eggs on the third day of the third lunar month.