茎
くき · kuki · JLPT N1 · noun
chaff
🌾 Grass radical 艸 marks a plant; 巠 is the phonetic part, so 茎 = plant stalk
The 艸 grass radical signals that it is a plant part, and 巠 supplies the sound (jīng). Kuki is the native Japanese word for the stalk that holds a plant upright.
茎 — grass radical 艹 + 巠 (jīng, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The grass radical 艹 on top signals a plant meaning, while 巠 below provides the sound 'jīng'. Originally referring to plant stalks or stems, the character still carries this botanical sense today, used for stems of plants and by extension stem-like structures.