臭阿魏 xiu a wei

Plants ca. 2 m, strongly onion-scented. Taproot fusiform, thickened. Stem solitary, stout, conspicuously fluted, pubescent, paniculate-branched, lower branches alternate, upper branches verticillate. Basal leaves broadly ovate in outline, ternate-3-pinnatisect; ultimate segments gray-green, lanceolate, ca. 10 mm, thin-leathery, soon wilting, distally crenulate to slightly lobed, densely pubescent, base cuneate, deciduous. Cauline leaves often less divided than basal, uppermost reduced to bladeless sheaths. Terminal umbels subsessile, lateral umbels 2–3, smaller, verticillate with elongate peduncles exceeding terminal; umbels ca. 12 cm across; bracts absent; rays 15–23, subequal, sparsely pubescent; bracteoles lanceolate, deciduous; umbellules 12–20-flowered. Petals abaxially pubescent. Fruit ellipsoid, ca. 10–12 mm; vittae 1–2 in each furrow, 6 on commissure. Fl. and fr. Apr–Jun.

Desert gravels; ca. 900 m. N Xinjiang (Ili) [Kazakhstan, Russia].

This species has reputed medicinal value.