Among the abundant plants in the countryside is a kind of rattle, whose leaves are shaped like rat ears, and can be found everywhere in farmland and in front of and behind houses. As a common wild plant in rural areas, R. ratthorn has long been unfavored by farmers because it often absorbs nutrients from winter crops, resulting in reduced crop yields. However, for those who understand the value of rattle, it is a treasure. Rat is an annual herbaceous plant belonging to the Asteraceae family that is commonly found in farmland and wheat fields. Its stems are erect, with creeping branches at the base and thick white hairs. The leaves are grayish-green, obovate spoon-shaped or spoon-shaped inverted-lanceolate, and the surface is covered with white hairs, giving the impression of a white and hairy patch. During flowering, the flowers are golden or yellow, and the fruiting period is between August and November of the following year.
1. Rage grass is a delicious taste of wild vegetables
From ancient times to the present, our people have a tradition of picking wild vegetables, and rattle grass, as a wild vegetable, can be eaten in the spring growth period. In particular, the young leaves of rattle grass in spring are suitable for picking and scrambled eggs, which is the author's favorite. Although there are not many leaves of rattle, in folklore, people usually collect rattle grass to make qingtuan or baba. Gu Jingxing during the Qing Dynasty wrote in "Praise of Wild Vegetables": "Rat grass grows in February, the leaves are like mouse ears, and rice is pounded into cakes, and the northerners are still cold and eaten." Because the best picking season is around the Qingming Festival, rattle grass is also known as Qingming cuisine among the people, and the made baba is called Qingming kueh or Qingming Baba. In my hometown of Hunan, people used to pick rattle grass to make baba during the first lunar month, but now this Xi has gradually disappeared.
2. The medicinal value of rattle
Rat is not just a spring wild vegetable, it also has extremely high medicinal properties. It is recorded in the "Rihuazi Materia Medica" that Rat Koji grass can regulate the effects of invigorating qi, stopping discharge, removing phlegm, pressing qi, and removing fever. Therefore, when people in the countryside accidentally catch a cold and cough, those farmers who understand the value of rattle grass will go to the farmland to pick rattle grass for application. This plant can not only be used as a medicinal material to treat diseases, but also can be made into plasters, which have a certain effect on ulcers, burns, etc.
3. Rat grass is favored as a high-quality forage grass
In addition to being eaten and medicinalized by humans, the stems and leaves of R. sagebrush are also full of moisture before fruiting, so not only humans but also animals enjoy it very much. Poultry such as pigs, cows, sheep, chickens and ducks are fond of rattle, and they never get tired of eating it every day. When I was a child, I liked to go to the dry fields to pull pigweed, because the rattle grass there was so lush that it could quickly fill the basket.
Although Raff grass is regarded as a pest grass by farmers in rural areas, it actually has rich edible and medicinal value. Every spring, people go out into the wild to pick rattle grass as an ingredient and make it into a variety of delicious dishes. At the same time, rattle grass is also a kind of herbal medicine, especially for colds and coughs, it has a certain curative effect, and is widely used by rural people. For poultry, rattle grass is a high-quality forage grass and is favored by them. Although this plant is easy to grow in farmland and has a certain impact on crops, it is worth re-examining the value of rattle grass and making rational use of its resources to make it better for humans and animals. In our lives, there are often many plants and objects that we don't know about, but as long as we are willing to explore and excavate, we can discover their uniqueness. Rat is an example of this, and its importance and value in the countryside is far greater than we think. We must be good at discovering and using the resources around us to make our lives richer and more diverse.