Usually in the north and south of China's hillside wasteland, river ditch can see a fern plant with only stems, obvious nodes, no leaves, people call it wood thief or knotweed, with medicinal value and ornamental value. Today I will talk about some of the situations of this plant.
First, the botanical characteristics of the wood thief
1. Name and classification status
Wood thief is the official middle name, this name comes from the "Chinese major plants tushu · fern phylum"; aliases are also called knotweed, file grass, arthropod grass, etc.; in plant taxonomy belongs to the fern plant Phylum Wood Thief family Wood Thief genus.
2, distribution and growth environment
Wood thieves are mainly distributed in northeast China, north China, northwest China, southwest and Henan, Hunan, Sichuan, Chongqing and other provinces and regions; usually grow in hillside wasteland, river ditches, humid places.
3, appearance characteristics
One is a large fern with rhizomes growing laterally or upright, black-brown; aboveground stems are perennial, about 1 m in height, internodes 5–8 cm long, green, unpronged or have a few upright lateral branches from the base; aboveground stems have 16–22 ridges.
The second is that the leaves are scaly, rotational, and converge on each node to form a cylindrical leaf sheath that surrounds the base of the internode.
The third is the sporangia spike apex, ovate, spore phyllophysis, shield-like.
Second, the main use of wood thieves
First, the dried aboveground part of the wood thief is medicinal, its sweet taste, bitterness, flatness, with the effect of dissipating wind and heat, retreating eye (yi); mainly contains volatile oils, phenolic acids, flavonoids, esters, alkaloids and other active ingredients. Please follow your doctor's advice when using medicines.
Second, the surface of the stem of the wood thief has ridges and small tumors, which were usually used in ancient times to polish high-end furniture, so it is called file grass.
Third, the wood thief has ornamental value, its stem is upright, clumpy, no leaves, special shape, can be planted in wet and shady places or potted ornamental applications.