采 cǎi, originally a hand picking from a tree, serves as a phonetic component to form characters. Characters formed by the component 采 mostly have the same pronunciation cǎi.
采 means in modern Chinese:
1.to pick; to pluck; to gather
2.to mine; to extract
3.to adopt; to select
4.complexion; spirit
See also the components 爪 and 爫
Characters formed by the component hand picking from a tree 采
踩 彩 睬 採 啋 寀 婇 寀 倸 the same pronunciation cǎi
菜 埰 the same pronunciation cài