Brief introduction of plantain
Plantain is called Niuer tree here in Jinzhou, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, where Sister Rong is located. This is because the leaves of Plantain are oval, and there are many lines on them, which are quite like cattle ears. Plantain is called differently in different places.
Plantain mainly grows in places with more water, such as roadsides and rivers, so that the plantain in this place will grow fat and tender. Plantago rhizome is short and thick, and leaves generally collapse on the ground, and there are many leaves. At the end of summer, plantain will pull out the pedicel, then it will be covered with white flowers, and then many small capsules will be released. When the fruit is ripe, it will crack to the ground, and then it will sprout and grow again when it meets the appropriate temperature and humidity.
Why do rural old people say that plantain is a treasure?
To satisfy hunger
Sister Rong and her mother said that when they were young, they didn't have much food at home, so they all used wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger. At that time, my mother would go to the fields to find some wild vegetables. Among the wild vegetables they were looking for, there were plantain, dandelion and horsetooth, and then they came back to mix them and eat them. That's mixed noodles and corn flour, and you can't eat white flour several times all the year round.
My mother often said that if it weren't for these wild vegetables when I was young, they wouldn't be alive and live such a happy life now, so now my mother will pull out some plantain to eat every year.
Mom also said that at that time, in addition to using plantain to fill their stomachs, many people also used plantain as a medicinal material. My mother said that I remember one year, my mother had a lot of blisters in her mouth. Because her family was too poor to buy medicine, it hurt for many days. Later, I heard someone say that plantain has some functions. My grandparents pulled out some plantain and boiled the water for my mother to drink. After drinking it several times, it improved, so plantain became a treasure in my mother's mouth.
Although plantain is a treasure in my mother's eyes, if it is used as medicine, it's better to follow the doctor's advice. Besides, technology is developed now, and there are quite a lot of pesticides in rural areas, so when using plantain, we must use it carefully to prevent adverse situations.
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To sum up, plantain is a treasure in the eyes of the elderly, because in their poor years, plantain can fill their stomachs and survive. Moreover, in that poor era, plantain could be used as a herbal medicine, so the old people in the village said plantain was a treasure.