Mainland Chinese or Mainlanders are Chinese people who live in the continental region of East Asia. The term "mainland China" is contemporarily used to refer to regions directly administered by the People's Republic of China, as opposed to special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau, the island of Taiwan, other ethnic Chinese-majority areas of the Chinese diaspora; the word is often used by Hokkien-speaking Taiwanese people to distinguish themselves from residents who were born in mainland China, if not directly calling the Mainlanders and themselves as "Chinese" and "Taiwanese" respectively. Due to the rapid economic growth of China, Mainland Chinese constitute a bigger part of global tourism; the word mainlander can refer to two different groups: 1949 immigrants or Waishengren are people who immigrated to Taiwan from mainland China after the Japanese surrender in 1945 during the late 1940s and early 1950s after Kuomintang lost the Chinese Civil War in 1949. This group includes all of their descendants born locally in Taiwan.

Daluren are residents of mainland China citizens of the People's Republic of China who live in mainland China. In the context of demographics of Taiwan, the term mainlander when applied to a Taiwan resident most refers to daluren; the translations of waishengren and benshengren into English poses some interesting difficulties. The usual English translation of waishengren is Mainlander, although many waishengren find this translation uncomfortable since it implies that waishengren are residents of mainland China, when they are all residents of Taiwan. Benshengren, which translates to "this province's person" and is sometimes translated as "native Taiwanese", refers to the people native to Taiwan before the Republic of China took over rule of Taiwan in 1945 and the mass exodus of pro-KMT Mainlanders following the Chinese Civil War, but this translation could be confused with the indigenous Austronesian people who are called "original residents". Most academic literature uses the terms benshengren directly.

The terms come up in the English-speaking media. Many supporters of Taiwan independence object to the term "extra-provincial people", because it implies that Taiwan is a province of China, prefer the nickname "new resident"; the latter phrase has not become popular in Taiwan and is unpopular among waishengren themselves. Chinese Civil War veterans are called "old taro" in Taiwanese Hokkien, due to the similarity between the shape of mainland China and taro leaves), or waisheng laobing (Chinese: 外省老兵. In government publications and the media, they are called "honorable citizens". Mainlanders make up about 10% of the population of Taiwan and are concentrated in northern Taiwan in the Taipei area. Although no longer dominating the government, waishengren still make up a large fraction of bureaucrats and military officers; the formal definition of a mainlander is someone living in Taiwan whose "native province" is not Taiwan. Native province does not mean the province in which one is born, but rather the province where one's father's "ancestral home" is.

Until 1996, identity cards and passports in Taiwan contained an entry for native province. The removal of native province from identity cards and replacement with place of birth was motivated in large part to reduce the mainlander/local distinction; this is true given that all "mainlanders" born after 1949 were born in Taiwan, not in their "native provinces". Because of the "native province" definition, someone, born on Taiwan, but whose father's family roots are not in Taiwan, is considered a waishengren. By contrast, someone, not born in Taiwan, but whose native province is Taiwan is not considered a waishengren. A child, born to a Taiwanese businessman residing in the PRC would not be considered a waishengren. Furthermore, recent immigrants to Taiwan from Mainland China from marriages and undocumented migrants, are not considered waishengren, but make up a separate social category. Although the numbers of these people are thought of as small and insignificant by most Taiwanese, it has been pointed out that recent immigrants from Mainland China and their children make up a larger population in Taiwan than Taiwanese aborigines.

The distinctions get fuzzier with mixed marriages and the fact that provincial identity sometimes does not correlate in obvious ways to characteristics such as political orientation or ability to speak Taiwanese. For example, although Mainlanders are stereotyped as supporting Chinese reunification and opposing Taiwan independence, there are numerous examples where this formula does not hold, it is common to find younger waishengren who speak fluent Taiwanese and younger benshengren who cannot speak it at all. The number of the original waishengren generation who migrated to Taiwan sixty years ago has been dwindling as they age and die. Thus, the great majority of today's waishengren are their descendants born in Taiwan, they do not speak the dialect of their "native province". Waishengren are descended from the people who followed Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan afte

Silphium terebinthinaceum is a member of the Asteraceae, a family that includes sunflowers referred to as prairie dock or prairie rosinweed. "Rosinweed" became one of the plant's common names due to the fact that upon injury, resin flows from the wound, giving the plant a sweet smell. Tea brewed from the roots of the prairie dock have a variety of medical applications in Native American culture; the smoke from this plant has been used as a treatment for congestion and rheumatism. Silphium terebinthinaceum is an herbaceous perennial growing 3 to 10 feet tall. Prairie dock produces small yellow flowers about 2–2 1⁄2 inches in diameter in the summer; the leaves are rough-textured, spade-shaped, oriented vertically and in a north-south direction, providing special adaptations for survival in the prairie climate. One study found that the majority of prairie dock's leaves were oriented within 15° of North as well as 60° away from the horizontal; the combination of north-south and vertical arrangement seems to provide a mechanism for maintaining lower leaf temperatures at midday, thus conserving water.

Additionally, this unique trait grants the plant better access to sunlight for photosynthesis, provides a more efficient method of producing its carbon resource. This dicot has a characteristically large taproot able to penetrate to depths of at least 14 feet in search of the water table. Silphium terebinthinaceum is native to most of Illinois, northwestern Indiana, southern parts of Michigan, southern parts of Wisconsin, parts of Missouri; the habitats of S. terebinthinaceum include black soil prairies as well as gravel and hill prairies. It prefers to grow alongside roads and railroads. Silphium terebinthinaceum prefers full sun. S. terebinthinaceum is a drought-resistant plant that thrives in dry to moist environments. While S. terebinthinaceum prefers deep loamy soils, it is tolerant of soils with gravel and rocks. The plant is strong and difficult to kill when it is mature. Though it is a robust plant, harsh conditions may still affect this plant; when there is a drought, a windstorm, or damage to the leaves of the S. terebinthinaceum, patches of brown can develop.

Recovery after wildfires occurs as it has a deep taproot. Silphium terebinthinaceum can survive destructive events such as grazing and soil degradation because of its ability to produce new above-ground shoots; this plant is well adapted to obtain and hold onto water due to its characteristically large taproot and large oriented leaves. Native bees nest within these plants or use elements of the plants for their nests, they are thought to be an important species for attracting bees for pollination in the area. Prairie dock is one of the few species that persists on land, converted from prairie to railway. Like Silphium perfoliatum, S. terebinthinaceum is used as a tea to relieve lung bleeding, to minimize menstruation bleeding, as an emetic by Native Americans. Other root tea uses include a treatment for liver issues and enlarged spleen; the smoke from this plant is used as a treatment for nerve pain, along with relieving congestion and rheumatism. However, this plant is considered toxic. Popular article on Silphium terebinthinaceum Video on medicinal uses of Silphium terebinthinaceum

LeRoux is a band founded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA that saw its heyday from 1978 to 1984. Their best-known songs were "Take a Ride On a Riverboat" with its 4-part a capella intro, the regional smash "New Orleans Ladies", "Nobody Said It Was Easy", "Addicted", "Carrie's Gone"; the band continues to perform live throughout the U. S. at fairs and festivals in the Louisiana area. In 1977 several former members of a group called the Levee Band, playing as backup players for Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and Clifton Chenier, signed a deal with Capitol Records as The Jeff Pollard Band. Leon Medica, the band's producer and bassist, had presented a demo tape to Paul Tannen at Screen Gems-EMI while doing a session in Nashville and making trips to Colorado to contribute bass parts to a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album at William McEuen's Aspen Recording Society studios. McEuen and Attorney John Frankenheimer helped Medica secure the contract with Capitol. By early 1978, they had changed their name to Louisiana's LeRoux, which refers to roux, a Cajun gravy base used to make gumbo.

The band was composed of Jeff Pollard, David Peters, Leon Medica, Tony Haselden, Rod Roddy and Bobby Campo. All of the songs on the self-titled 1978 debut album were sung and written by Pollard, except "New Orleans Ladies", written by Hoyt Garrick with a contribution by Medica, it reached #59 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1978. Two more albums followed, but after neither was able to expand the band's fan base, they were dropped by Capitol. Starting with the Jai Winding-produced Up, they dropped "Louisiana's" from their name and became "LeRoux". In 1981 they signed with RCA and issued their fourth LP, Last Safe Place, their highest-charting album; the album spawned three hit Billboard singles in 1982: "Addicted", "Nobody Said It Was Easy", "Last Safe Place on Earth". Other changes were in store as Campo and Pollard both quit that year, with the former returning to school to complete his master's degree in music and the latter renouncing rock music to enter the Baptist Christian ministry, where he remains today.

Singer Fergie Frederiksen and guitarist Jim Odom came on board in the summer of 1982, taking over for Pollard on the fifth album, So Fired Up. The album contained the minor-charting "Carrie's Gone", which Odom and Frederiksen had written after Frederiksen's breakup with actress Carrie Hamilton, Carol Burnett's daughter; the music video for the album's second single "Lifeline" received MTV rotation, was covered by Bobby and the Midnites and Uriah Heep. It wasn't enough to keep them from being dropped by RCA, the band called it quits by 1984. Frederiksen stepped in to replace Bobby Kimball in the band Toto. In March 1985 Leon Medica and Tony Haselden were part of a USO organized traveling rock outfit that entertained US military troops in Europe, called 1st Airborne Division Rock and Roll. In 1985, most of the band got back together to do annual concerts in and around New Orleans with new singer Randy Knapps. Peters and Odom were part of the group Network, who recorded the song "Back in America" for the movie European Vacation that came out that same year.

Medica and Knapps were part of another edition of 1st Airborne Division Rock and Roll that went to the Indian Ocean and Europe in September through October 1986. After releasing a greatest hits compilation entitled Bayou Degradable: The Best of Louisiana's LeRoux in July 1996, the band decided to play more live shows in the southern U. S. and along the Gulf Coast and have been doing so since. By 1997, new members Boo Pourciau, Nelson Blanchard and Steve Brewster came in to sub for Peters and Campo, whenever the increased tour schedule conflicted with their other duties. Shortly thereafter, Campo left the band again and Mark Duthu replaced Brewster. In 2000 the newer members appeared alongside Knapps, Medica, Odom, Roddy and a returning Campo on a new release, Ain't Nothing But a Gris Gris; the CD featured ten tracks – "all written or co-written by members of LeRoux", according to the back cover. The CD was produced by Medica with Odom credited as an Associated Producer. Percussionist Kenneth "Boo" Pourciau died on April 19, 2003 at age 64.

Knapps left the group at the end of 2005 and Courtney Westbrook was lead singer in 2006 before Terry Brock took over in 2007. After the group's heyday, guitarist Tony Haselden became a Nashville songwriter in the late'80s and penned the country hits "It Ain't Nothin'" for the late Keith Whitley, "That's My Story" for Collin Raye, "Mama Knows" for the group Shenandoah and many others. Bassist and producer Leon Medica resides in Nashville and is in high demand as a studio musician and songwriter. Members of LeRoux backed up Tab Benoit on his Brother to the Blues and Power of the Ponchartrain CDs, recorded a live DVD and CD in Nashville with Tab in early May 2007, toured nationwide with him in 2007 and 2008. On October 10, 2009, during their performance at Tab Benoit's "Voice of the Wetlands" Festival in Houma, Louisiana, LeRoux was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame as their 50th inductee. In 2010 Terry Brock was replaced as lead singer by Keith Landry and David Peters was replac