Plants perennial, 0.4–1 m. Root cylindric, branched, rootlets many, succulent, strongly aromatic. Stem purplish green, ribbed, branched above. Basal and lower petioles 5–20 cm, sheaths purplish green, ovate, membranous-margined; blade ovate, 10–30 × 12–25 cm, 2–3-ternate-pinnate, pinnae 3–4 pairs, proximal and middle pinnae long-petiolulate; leaflets ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 2–3.5 × 0.8–2.5 cm, 2–3-lobed, margin irregularly coarse-cuspidate-serrate, sparse papillate-hairy along nerves and margin. Peduncles 8–20 cm, pubescent or subglabrous; bracts absent or 2, linear; rays 10–30, unequal, scabrous; bracteoles 2–4, linear, 3–5 mm; umbellules 13–36-flowered; pedicels slender, 1–3 cm in fruit. Calyx teeth obsolete, rarely minute, ovate. Petals white, rarely purplish red. Fruit ellipsoid or suborbicular, 4–6 × 3–4 mm; dorsal ribs filiform, prominent, lateral ribs broadly thin-winged, wings as wide as or wider than the body; vittae 1 in each furrow, 2 or absent on commissure. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Jul–Sep.

The roots are frequently used in the important traditional Chinese medicine “dang gui.”

Wild or cultivated in forests, shrubby thickets; 2500–3000 m. Gansu, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan