滇南糙果芹 dian nan cao guo qin

Ptychotis roxburghiana de Candolle, Prodr. 4: 109. 1830; Apium involucratum Roxburgh; Carum roxburghianum (de Candolle) Kurz; C. stictocarpum C. B. Clarke; Pimpinella involucrata (Roxburgh) Wight & Arnott; Ptychotis involucrata (Roxburgh) Lindley; Trachyspermum involucratum (Roxburgh) H. Wolff; T. roxburghianum (de Candolle) H. Wolff; T. stictocarpum (C. B. Clarke) H. Wolff.

Plants annual, 20–100 cm. Leaves petiolate, petioles slender, 1–2 cm; blade ovate in outline, 3–8 × 2–12 cm, 2-pinnate or ternate-pinnate; ultimate segments narrowly oblong, 5–20 × 2–3 mm, base cuneate. Leaves reduced upwards, ultimate segments becoming linear-lanceolate. Umbels 2–4 cm across; peduncles 5–9 cm; bracts and bracteoles few, linear-subulate or ciliate, 3–5 mm; rays 4–12, 1–3 cm, filiform, unequal, hirsutulous or glabrescent; umbellules 12–20-flowered; pedicels 1–5 mm, unequal, hirsutulous. Fruit ovoid, 1.5–3 × 1.5–2 mm, apex contracted forming a very short neck, densely hirsutulous or glabrescent. Fl. and fr. Feb–Jul.

Cultivated, adventive on forest margins and in ruderal areas. S Yunnan (Xishuangbanna) [apparently native to S India].

This species cultivated as a spice throughout the Indian subcontinent, SE Asia, and Indonesia.