18. Bupleurum bicaule Helm, Mém. Soc. Imp. Naturalistes Moscou. 2: 108. 1809.
锥叶柴胡 zhui ye chai hu
Plants 15–30 cm, perennial. Rootstock, branched, thickened and woody at apex. Stems many, slender, few-branched above, base densely clothed with remnant fibrous sheaths. Leaves all linear, 7–16 × 0.1–0.3 cm, 3–5-nerved, base slightly tapering into a short petiole, apex mucronate. Cauline leaves sessile, slightly clasping. Umbels 1–2 cm across; bracts 1–3, or absent, 1–3 × ca. 1 mm; rays 4–7, 4–15 mm; bracteoles 5, lanceolate, 1–3 × 0.5–0.7 mm, shorter than flowers; umbellules 3–6 mm across, 7–13-flowered; pedicels 0.7–1.3 mm. Petals bright yellow, tip shallowly 2-lobed. Stylopodium low-conic, dark yellow. Fruit broadly ovoid, bluish-brown, 2.5–3 × ca. 2 mm; ribs prominent; vittae 3 in each furrow, 2–4 on commissure, very small, obscure when mature. Fl. and fr. Jul–Sep.
Forest margins, gravelly or sunny mountain slopes, dry stony grasslands; 600–1600 m. Hebei, N Heilongjiang, Nei Mongol, N Shaanxi, N Shanxi [Afghanistan, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia].
The roots of at least var. bicaule are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
