plexus, clump of bushes, thicket
叢 centers on dense clustering: a thicket of bushes, a clump of plants, or any tangled plexus of things growing or gathering together.
叢 combines 丵 (a dense cluster of plants) with 取, which likely contributes a phonetic element. The overall idea is a thicket or clump.
The top 丵 looks like a tangled mass of vegetation, and the bottom 取 suggests gathering. Picture a dense clump of bushes so thick you have to take hold and pull them apart.
For ソウ, imagine a dense thicket so overgrown that you need to sew a path through it: sew -> ソウ, and the tangled bushes form a plexus.
gathering clouds; group of clouds
bamboo grove
plexus; rete
series (of publications); library (set of books)
standing in a group; standing up in unison
copse; crowd; herd
one red flower standing out in a sea of green vegetation; one item of quality standing out among many; one woman among many men
autumn shower; fall shower
dense wood; thick wood
pack ice
dense growth; thick growth; gregarious growth; growing in clusters
small shrine in a thicket
miscellaneous studies
collection of stories
Murakumo no Tsurugi (alternate name for Ama-no-Murakumo no Tsurugi; the sword of the Imperial regalia)
Ama-no-Murakumo no Tsurugi (sword; one of the three Imperial regalia); Ame-no-Murakumo no Tsurugi
solar plexus
microbiota
thicket
thicket of cedar trees