葉 Bulgeun Jeopsikkot Ip (붉은 접시꽃 잎)

The leaf of the red hollyhock, a biennial herb in the mallow family, appears in Dongui Bogam as a sub-entry under Red Hollyhock (Hongchokgyu) in the Vegetables section (chaebu, 菜部). The original text gives it only a single line, recording neither its nature and flavor — the standard opening of a Dongui Bogam entry, which describes whether a medicinal is warming or cooling and how it tastes — nor any instructions for preparing it. The plant itself takes two years to flower: in its first year it produces only a rounded rosette of leaves, and in the second it sends up a stalk and blooms. Today the hollyhock is far better known as a summer flower planted in rows along garden walls than as a medicinal herb.