What kind of grass is Wula grass?

Wula grass, also known as Cyperaceae, is a perennial herb of the genus Cyperaceae. It grows in swamps in forest areas or in meadow swamps in Sanjiang Plain, China, and can still grow at an altitude of 3460 meters. It is mainly distributed in the Changbai Mountains in northeast China and to the south of Waixing'an Mountains (including Sakhalin Island). It can be used as medicine, and has the main functions of removing taste, removing taste, activating collaterals, eliminating fatigue, improving blood microcirculation and enhancing immunity. Together with ginseng and mink, it is called the three treasures of Northeast China.

The rhizome is short, forming pedals, culms dense tufted, 20-50 cm high, 1-1.5 mm wide, slender, trimorphic, hard, basal leaf sheath leafless, brown, glossy, minutely lobed or fibrous. Leaves shorter than or nearly as long as culms, setose, inflexed, hard, margin scabrous. Bracts lowermost setose, sheathless, distal ones scalelike. Spikelets 2-3, close, terminal 1 male, Terete, 1.5-2 cm long. Lateral spikelets female, globose or ovate, 0.5-1.2 cm long, ca. 5 mm wide, densely flowered.

Male flower scales dark brown or light brown, apex obtuse. Female flower scales ovate-elliptic, apex obtuse, ca. 2.8 × 3.5 mm, dark purple-black or reddish brown, abaxially light in middle, with inconspicuous 3-veined, margin narrowly white membranous. Fruit sac as long as or slightly longer than scales, ovate or elliptic, flat trigonous, 2.5 × 3 mm long, grayish green, densely papillae, with 5 × 6 veins, base slightly rounded, shortly stipitate, apex sharply shrunk into a columnar short beak, beak entire. Nutlets tightly wrapped in fruit sac, Obovate-elliptic, flat trigonous, brown, 1.5 × 2 mm long, shortly stipitate, apex rounded, style base not dilated, stigma 3. The flowering and fruiting period is from June to July.

Wula grass has slender and soft leaves, tough fibers, and is not easy to break. It can be used as a good material for straw sandals, straw mattresses, artificial cotton, fiberboard, straw-woven handicrafts, papermaking and so on. It can also be used to keep warm and fill in the shoes. It is warm and cold-proof, and people in mountainous areas of northeast China like it very much. On the surface, Wula grass looks very ordinary, slender stems and leaves, green, clusters, green-brown flowers. However, for hundreds of years, this ordinary grass has been closely related to the life of the people in Changbai Mountain and has become an indispensable necessity. Every autumn, people go to the mountains to cut Wula grass, dry it and store it in the sun, and put it into their shoes in winter to avoid frostbite.

The winter temperature in Northeast China is relatively low, so it is difficult for ordinary cotton-padded shoes to keep out the cold. In the old days, Kanto people sewed leather and beat soft Wula grass as cold-proof shoes, which are beloved "grass shoes" of the poor in the north. Wula also wrote "Jianyu" and "Wuli", whose name comes from the transliteration of the title of leather boots in Manchuria. it is a kind of "earthen leather shoes" worn by people in Northeast China in winter. The original plant stems and leaves after hammering into felt boots, breathable and moisture-proof, can protect against cold, used to be called "Kanto three treasures" one. Wula grass before use, but also with a stick to beat, soft after the foot will not be hurt. There are many wild grasses in Northeast China, which are similar to Wula grass in shape, but only Wula grass has the best thermal insulation performance.