防风属 fang feng shu

Pan Zehui (潘泽惠); Mark F. Watson

Herbs perennial, glabrous. Rootstock thick and branched, annular, crown surrounded by fibrous remnant sheaths. Stem much-branched from base, thinly ribbed, branches almost equaling stem. Leaves 2–3-pinnate/pinnatisect. Umbels terminal and lateral; bracts absent; bracteoles several, linear-lanceolate. Calyx teeth short, triangular-ovate. Petals white, obovate with incurved tip, glabrous. Stylopodium conic; styles short, elongated and reflexed in fruit; ovary densely white tuberculate. Fruit oblong-ellipsoid, strongly dorsally compressed; dorsal ribs slightly prominent, lateral ribs narrowly winged; vittae 1 in each furrow, one large vittae in each rib, 2 on commissure. Seed face plane.

One species: China, Korea, Mongolia, Russia (E Siberia).

Lower Taxon

• Saposhnikovia divaricata (Turczaninow) Schischkin