Bo Gai Cao is a common herb in rural areas, also known as Pearl Lotus, Bone-Setting Grass, etc. It often grows on roadsides, grasslands, and farmland, and has the effects of clearing heat, promoting diuresis, activating blood circulation, dispelling wind, reducing swelling, and detoxification. Let's take a look at the propagation methods of Bo Gai Cao!
【Origin of Bo Gai Cao】
Bo Gai Cao, belonging to the family Lamiaceae, is an annual or biennial herb. Its name is easy to understand by looking at its appearance.
The upper lip of the small lip-shaped flowers of this weed protrudes straight up, which is the most attractive part, just like the umbrellas commonly seen in Buddhism and Taoism in ancient times. Therefore, it is called "Bo Gai Cao" in Chinese, which means "precious umbrella grass".
The layers of leaves on the stem are like stacked lotus seats, so "Buddha's seat" naturally becomes the name of this weed. If this weed were discovered nowadays, what would it be called?
Plants are always closely related to human affairs. Every plant carries a long life and can often introduce you to the current trend in an unintentional way, such as "precious umbrella", "Buddha's seat", and a bunch of other tree and grass names related to "Buddha".
Most Bo Gai Cao flowers are purple, but there are exceptions. Occasionally, in a cluster of pink and purple, you can see one or two white flowers adorned with a few purple spots, which are extremely outstanding and eye-catching.
【Propagation Methods of Bo Gai Cao】
After the base of Bo Gai Cao forks, there are no more branches, and the stem grows straight up towards the sky. The leaves that grow opposite each other separate each stem into three or four layers, and each layer contains treasures, which are the tools for their reproduction. Therefore, the name "Bo Gai Cao" means "leaves like precious umbrellas".
Bo Gai Cao is a relatively common weed in rural fields. It grows in most provinces and cities in China, such as Zhejiang, Fujian, Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Hubei, Hunan, etc.
The main growing locations of Bo Gai Cao are beside houses, vegetable gardens, roadsides, and farmland. It starts to grow from March each year, and its flowering period is from March to May.
During this time, Bo Gai Cao absorbs a large amount of nutrients from the soil, so it often competes for nutrients with vegetables and crops in vegetable gardens and farmland, resulting in poor growth of vegetables or crops due to insufficient nutrients.
Therefore, after the beginning of spring, many farmers will first remove these weeds and grasses from their farmland, including Bo Gai Cao, which makes many farmers dislike it.
【Medicinal Value of Bo Gai Cao】
In fact, Bo Gai Cao is quite useful. First of all, as you can see, Bo Gai Cao has beautiful flowers, so in some big cities, it has become an ornamental plant. Some farmers in certain areas specialize in growing Bo Gai Cao for sale.
Bo Gai Cao has the functions of dispelling wind, promoting blood circulation, reducing swelling, and relieving pain. It is often used in folk medicine to treat bone and muscle pain, numbness in limbs, bruises, lymphadenitis, fractures, and other bone and muscle-related diseases. Therefore, it is also called "Bone-Setting Grass" in Chinese.
In addition, I have also consulted relevant information, which mentioned that Bo Gai Cao can also be used to treat jaundice hepatitis, lymphadenitis, and hypertension, but these uses are more common in medical students and less common among the general population. However, it still shows that Bo Gai Cao has great value.
Bo Gai Cao is only known as "Bone-Setting Grass" in folk medicine, but in reality, the real Bone-Setting Grass is another type of weed that also has the effect of treating fractures.
