Plants 25–120 cm high, perennial. Taproot stout, woody, branched. Stem rigid, base woody, usually tinged purple, without fibrous remnant sheaths. Leaves long-lanceolate to linear, 10–16 × 0.6–1.4 cm, thinly coriaceous, nerves 9–13, base tapering and clasping, margin conspicuously white-cartilaginous, apex acute or acuminate, apiculate. Upper leaves small. Inflorescence much-branched, umbels numerous, 1.5–4 cm across, lateral umbels often overtopping the terminal; bracts 2–5, lanceolate or squamose, 1–4 × 0.2–1 mm, unequal; rays 3–4(–7), 1–3 cm, unequal; bracteoles 5, lanceolate, 1.5–2.5 × 0.5–1 mm, shorter than pedicels, apex apiculate, margin white-scarious; umbellules 4–9 mm across, (6–)8–10(–12)-flowered. Petals pale yellow. Stylopodium low-conic, dark yellow. Fruit oblong, brown, 3.5–4.5 × 1.8–2.2 mm; ribs prominent; vittae 3 in each furrow, 4 on commissure. Fl. Jun–Sep, fr. Sep–Nov. n = 12*.

The root is widely used as a substitute for the Chinese medicine “chai hu.”

Forests, alpine forests, mountain slopes, grasslands, river banks, roadsides; 700–4000 m. S Gansu, Guizhou, Hubei, Qinghai, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India, Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sikkim].