阿坝当归 a ba dang gui

Heracleum apaense (R. H. Shan & C. Q. Yuan) R. H. Shan & T. S. Wang.

Plants perennial, 1–2 m, stout. Root cylindric, ca. 2.5 cm thick. Stem stout, ribbed, white-pubescent. Petioles 8–10 cm, sheaths ca. 7 × 3.5–4 cm, broad-ovate or saccate, pubescent; blade elliptic or triangular-ovate, 2–3-pinnate, glabrous; pinnae 3–4 pairs, subsessile, leaflets long-elliptic or lanceolate, 4–5 × 1.5–2.5 cm, margin serrate, sometimes 1–3-lobed. Umbels 10–20(–32) cm across; peduncles 16–20 cm, pubescent; bracts 5–9, long-lanceolate, puberulent; rays 28–65, 6–15 cm, purple-green, pubescent; bracteoles 4–8, 12–14 mm, linear; umbellules 25–50-flowered. Calyx teeth obsolete. Petals white, ovate. Fruit ellipsoid, broad-ovoid to suborbicular, 5–10 × 5–9 mm; dorsal ribs prominent, thick, obtuse, lateral ribs thick, broad-winged; vittae 1 in each furrow, absent on commissure. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Aug–Sep. n = 11*.

Shrubby thickets, damp grassy slopes; 3000–4000 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.

The roots are used in Sichuan and Yunnan as a traditional Chinese medicine. The fruit shape and structure of Angelica apaensis is similar to the Himalayan species A. nubigena (C. B. Clarke) P. K. Mukherjee and A. cyclocarpa (C. Norman) M. Hiroe, but differs significantly from these and other members of Angelica. Further research may show that this species belongs to a new genus.