You might remember the meaning of the character 莱 with this easy mnemonic:
Chenopodium albums have pretty white flowers (艹). I only have one (一) tree (木) growing in my garden, but tons of Chenopodium album. People raise their eyebrows (丷) at me when they walk past my house!
Using mnemonics to remember the meaning of Chinese characters like has a huge impact on how long to learn Mandarin it takes.