thistle
薊 centers on the thistle plant, a prickly flowering herb. The meaning is specific and does not extend to broader abstract ideas.
薊 combines the grass radical 艹 with a phonetic component 魝. The character was created to name the thistle plant, with the phonetic part likely contributing the sound.
The grass radical 艹 sits above a fish-like shape 魝 with a knife 刂. Imagine a thistle growing among grass, its sharp spines like tiny knives that can prick like a fish bone.
For ケイ, picture a thistle shaped like the letter K: K -> ケイ, and the K stands for the sharp, spiky plant.
thistle (Cirsium spp.)
milk thistle (Silybum marianum)
Azumayama thistle; Cirsiummicrospicatum
himeazami (Cirsium buergeri)
Fuji thistle; Cirsium purpuratum
globe artichoke (Cynara scolymus)
Cirsium dipsacolepis (perennial plant of the thistle family)
Cirsium dipsacolepis (perennial plant of the thistle family)
Hemisteptia lyrata
Mexican prickly poppy (Argemone mexicana)
thrips (any insect of order Thysanoptera); thrip
Japanese thistle (Cirsium japonicum)
Cirsium chokaiense (species of thistle)