中国黄耆 zhong guo huang qi

Glycyrrhiza costulata Handel-Mazzetti.

Plants 35-55 cm tall, with hairs 0.04-0.4 mm. Stem soli­tary, erect, up to 5 mm thick, glabrous, branched with slender, mostly non-flowering lateral branches. Leaves 7-15 cm; stip­ules linear-acuminate, 6-10 mm, glabrous, with a curved short auricle at base; petiole 1-3 cm, like rachis glabrous or with a few appressed hairs; leaflets in 10-15 pairs, narrowly elliptic, 16-25 × 2-10 mm, abaxially sparsely appressed white hairy, adaxially glabrous, apex rounded and shortly mucronulate. Racemes 3.5-5 cm, loosely many flowered; peduncles numerous in upper part of stem, 3-6 cm, glabrous; bracts 3-4 mm, sparsely ciliate. Bracteoles 1-2 mm. Calyx 4-5 mm, glabrous; teeth 1-2 mm. Petals yellow or whitish yellow; standard ovate to widely ovate, 12-15 × 7-9 mm, apex emarginate; wings 9-11.5 mm; keel 13-14 mm. Legumes with a slender stipe 6-8 mm, nodding, nut-shaped, globose to obovoid, 9-14 mm, 5-6 mm high and 7-9 mm wide, with a very short slender beak, widely and deeply grooved ventrally, rounded dorsally; valves rigidly cartilaginous-leathery, transversely wrinkled-nerved, gla­brous.

Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shanxi [Mongolia, Russia (Far East)].