艸

It representing the general category of herbaceous plants.

It is the original form of the character 草 (meaning "grass"). The character 艸 is a compound ideograph formed by placing two 屮 characters, which depict the shape of sprouting grass, side by side.

艸 is considered a somewhat unfortunate character because it has largely been replaced by 草 in regions like Taiwan.

In Japan, regardless of whether the old (kyūjitai) or new (shinjitai) forms are used, 草 is the standard character, and 艸 is not even included in the list of commonly used kanji (jōyō kanji).

Thus, 艸 is rarely used independently today.