buckbean
Phylum Angiospermum, Order Lycaenidae, Gentian family, Phyotrich subfamily, Phylum, Perennial Herb, Aquatic Water Plant, commonly known as Clover. Mostly grows in groups in swamps at an altitude of 450 to 3600 meters and shallow water along streams, preferring warm humid or swampy environments, more hardy, and its rhizomes can overwinter smoothly. Widely distributed in China, some areas can form dominant communities, the Beihai wetland nightcap community mainly grows on the native wetland "floating carpet" grass row.
The whole plant is smooth and hairless, with a creeping rhizome of thick, yellow-brown, and membranous scaly leaves on the nodes. The leaves are all basal, protruding from the water, three compound leaves, leaflets oval, blunt and rounded at the apex, wedge-shaped at the base, microwave-shaped at the full rim or edge, obvious midrib, no small petioles, the total petiole length of 12 to 20 cm, the lower part is wider, sheathed.
The flower leaf is drawn from the squamous leaf axils at the top of the rhizome, 30 to 35 cm high, with most dense flowers in the upper part, forming a total inflorescence, the unopened buds are oval and pink; the open flowers are about 1 cm in size, the corolla is white and lovely, with 5 lobes, lobes oval lanceolate, with many dense white long tassel-like hairs inside, the middle of the flowers is pistil, the stigma is yellow, and it is often split into three forks. The capsules are spherical, 6 to 7 mm long; the seeds are swollen, round, 2 to 2.5 mm long, the surface is smooth, and the flowering period is 5 to 7 months.
Nightcap grows rapidly, the rhizome is thick, the root system is developed, and it has a strong ability to absorb heavy metal pollutants, which can be used to purify water quality and green decoration. The ancients also had a lot of research and understanding of nightcap, and called it drunken grass, nickname, and cabbage. "Compendium of Materia Medica" said that it can "cure the heart diaphragm evil fever, can not sleep", modern Chinese medicine believes that sleeping vegetables can calm the liver, relieve heat, but also treat gastritis, stomach pain, indigestion, palpitations insomnia, mental restlessness and other symptoms. It can be seen that nightcap is definitely a good medicine for treating insomnia, and the sleepy characteristics of this food are also unique to sleepy vegetables.
Reference: Lin Qinwen. Alternative Lingbo Fairy- Sleepy Vegetables[J].Nature,2010,{4}(02):22-23.