植物 (zhí wù)

Character breakdown

• 植 (zhí) · 12 strokes

  Phonosemantic compound. 木 represents the meaning and 直 represents the sound.

• 物 (wù) · 8 strokes

  Phonosemantic compound. 牛 represents the meaning and 勿 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "variety", depicting the variety of colors on a cow. Later the meaning shifted to "things".