梗 means “blockage, stalk”

こう · kou

Also: for the most part, close up, flower stem

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)
ふさぐ, やまにれ, おおむね
On'yomi (Chinese reading)
コウ, キョウ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 11 strokes

The story

Wood (木) and 更: picture a stiff stem jammed across a pipe. 梗 is blockage: 脳梗塞 is a stroke from a blocked vessel in the brain, 心筋梗塞 a heart attack, and 桔梗, the purple bellflower, is one of the seven flowers of autumn.

Used in 脳梗塞 (noukousoku, cerebral infarction), 心筋梗塞 (shinkinkousoku, heart attack), and 桔梗 (kikyou, Chinese bellflower)

More from Sickness & Cures

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Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.