东当归 dong dang gui

Ligusticum acutilobum Siebold & Zuccarini, Pl. Jap. Fam. Nat. 2: 203. 1845.

Plants perennial, 30–100 cm. Root yellow-brown, 10–25 × 1–2.5 cm, strongly aromatic. Stem solid, purplish, thinly ribbed. Basal and lower leaves petiolate, petioles 10–30 cm, sheaths oblong; blade triangular-ovate, 10–25 cm, 1–2-ternate-pinnate, glabrous; pinnae short-petiolulate, 2–9 × 1–3 cm, 3-lobed, segments lanceolate, margin irregularly acute-serrate, apex acuminate to acute; peduncles 5–20 cm, glabrous or pubescent; bracts absent or 1 to several, linear-lanceolate, 1–2 cm; rays 18–30, unequal, pubescent; bracteoles 5–8, linear, 5–15 mm; umbellules ca. 30-flowered; pedicels slender. Calyx teeth obsolete. Petals white, obovate to oblong. Fruit narrow-oblong, 4–5 × 1–1.5 mm; dorsal ribs filiform, lateral ribs narrow-winged; vittae 3–4 in each furrow, 4–8 on commissure. Fl. Jul–Aug, fr. Aug–Sep.

Cultivated; ca. 400 m. Jilin [native to Japan and Korea].

The roots are used in Jilin as a regional substitute for the traditional Chinese medicine “dang gui” (see Angelica sinensis).