Also known as fairy crane grass seeds clinging to people

Dragon bud grass is a kind of weed spread all over the north and south, and it is also a kind of medicinal plant.

[Agrimonia pilosa] Rosaceae Rosaceae > > Agropyron

Dragon bud grass is widely distributed. I have seen him in the wild in Hangzhou, Beijing and Yunnan. Therefore, he has a lot of aliases, of which the most well-known is "Xianhe Cao", which comes from the Chinese Dictionary of Pharmacy. Through the research of modern traditional Chinese medicine, it has the functions of deworming, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and so on. Therefore, fairy crane grass, that is, dragon bud grass, can often be seen in grass gardens all over the country.

The leaves of the dragon bud grass in the medicine garden are very dense.

But in the eyes of more people, dragon bud grass may be an annoying weed-its seeds, like Xanthium and Bidens, like clingy people. In addition, dragon sprouts are eaten as wild vegetables in some places.

In Hangzhou area, the flowering period of dragon bud grass is in June and July, and they can be found in Hangzhou Botanical Garden, Xixi Wetland and other places. Dragon bud grass belongs to Rosaceae and Rosaceae. When blooming, many small yellow flowers with five petals are arranged into long racemes.

Wild dragon bud grass

Although the inflorescence is very long and the flowers look big in my photo, the flower affair of dragon bud grass is actually very inconspicuous. Passing by a Rain Water garden in Beijing, the landscape designer added dragon bud grass to the wildflower combination of the garden. But the dragon bud grass flower is really too small, even if it is blooming into pieces, it still can't be seen.

Can you find Dragon Bud Grass?

At the end of the flowering period, dragon bud grass begins to bear fruit. The fruit type of asparagus is achene, hidden in a cup-shaped, spiny structure. This cup-shaped structure looks a bit like a sea anemone, consisting of a receptacle and a calyx, with a circle of barbed soft thorns growing at the base of the calyx.

The fruit of dragon bud grass and the cup-shaped structure outside.

It can be found that from bud to fruit, this circle of "curly hairs" of dragon bud grass grows longer and longer, and becomes harder and harder. By the time the fruit was ripe, he could firmly hold on to the passers-by's clothes.

This approach is similar to burdock, the inspiration for nylon clasps.

[1] Rabdosia angustifolia leaves

The leaves of Dragon Bud Grass are also quite characteristic. Odd-pinnate compound leaves have three to four pairs of leaves, each pair of leaves, but also interspersed with several smaller leaves, large and small alternately arranged, very unusual. This is also one of the key points for the identification of dragon bud grass.

Note: this article does not constitute medication advice, please follow the doctor's advice.

[1] By Salicyna [CC BY-SA 4.0], from Wikimedia Commons

Author: Jiang SB.

Photo: Jiang SB.

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