知母 zhi mu

Rhizome to 10 × 0.5--1.7 cm. Leaves 10--60 × 0.15--1 cm, glabrous, margin scabrid. Scape (20--)35--100 cm, glabrous. Raceme 10--50 cm; bracts ovate or ovate-orbicular, apex often long acuminate. Perianth segments pink, pale purple, or white, linear or narrowly oblong, 5--10 × 1--1.5 mm, persistent in fruit. Ovary ovoid, ca. 1.5 × 1 mm. Style ca. 1 mm. Capsule 0.8--1.5 × 0.3--0.6 cm including beaked apex, prominently 6-angled. Seeds black, narrowly oblong-elliptic, slightly curved, 7--12 × 2.5--3 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun--Sep. 2 n = 22*.

Scrub, grassy slopes, steppes, sunny and sandy hillsides, also cultivated; near sea level to 1500 m. Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan; cultivated in Taiwan [Korea, Mongolia].

The rhizomes are used medicinally.