Jiao gu lan?

I recently was rooting through my bag of weird shit I bought in China 2 winters ago. I have not really unpacked this bag for some reason. Perhaps it is because I don't quite know what to do with the bizarre cartooned face masks and blank journals that have blatent undercurrents of pro-Mao imagery. Or the vinyl holographic wall hangings of waterfalls and tigers. There is a red piece of "real silk" with dragons on it and several cheap reference books regarding Chinese medicine. The other day I pulled out the book I bought for a buck at the Carrefour (Walmart like store that was between our apartment and th hospital) about Chinese medicinal herbs. Loaded with groovy illustrations of plants and plant parts and weird animals and animal parts, it describes to the reader what to use each item for and how to use it. The only little thing is you have to read Chinese to get it. Otherwise, you are like me and you gaze longingly at the groovy illustrations and wonder what in god's name the stuff says. This book became a very popular item in Jenna's room at the hospital in Tianjin. Her 24 hour Chinese nurse/ helper "Lulu" would enthusiastically read the book every day, and then we would try to talk about it. The only thing was she spoke Chinese and I spoke American. I kept coming back to the page with the groovy illustration of a plant I am growing, which I know as "jiao gu lan." Lulu communicated to me that it grows like a weed all over the ground at the place she lives in the countryside, but I could not really gather the local herbal usages of the plant from our daily conversations. So I suckered one of the hospital translators into taking the book home with her and translating the page for me. A few days later she brought me back 2 pages of notes. After I thanked her, I apparently didn't thoroughly read the notes because a couple of days ago I was reviewing them and my mind was blown by something on the 2nd sheet of notes. Click on the picture to enlarge it, and see if you can guess what really got me... Enjoy.





ps. Upon reviewing the notes, I am now not so sure that either of the plants shown is jiao gu lan. I was thinking that the one on the left was, but who knows?