Gnaphalium affine

Gnaphalium affine is a species of plant belonging to the genus Gnaphalium. The species grows extensively in East Asia including temperate regions of China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan as well as some high altitude tropical regions of India, Nepal, and Thailand. The plant is biennial, with stems 15–40 cm long, the surface of the plant is covered with fine woolly hair and the leaves are small and rounded. The flowers appear as small florets with petal around 2 mm long. In Chinese this plant is known as shǔqúcǎo (鼠麹草, lit. 'mouse yeast grass'); it is sometimes used to flavor the caozai guo consumed on Taiwan on Tomb Sweeping Day in the spring. In Japanese, it is known as hahakogusa or houkogousa (母子草 or ハハコグサ, lit. 'mother and child grass'). G. affine is one of the herbs consumed during the Seven-Herbs Festival in the spring. In Vietnam, it is named rau khúc. This plant has been used traditionally in Traditional Chinese medicine and also features in the cuisine of East Asian Countries namely in sweet rice confections. They include the Japanese Kusa mochi and the Taiwanese chhú-khak-ké (鼠麹粿, 草仔粿). The plant is also ground up and used to give noodles and green onion pancakes (蔥油餅) a distinctive green colour and a unique flavour. This is an ingredient for a kind of xôi- xôi khúc in Vietnam and people usually use it for treatment of common cough.