Ginseng

This species is used medicinally.

Herbs, perennial, ca. 50 cm tall. Rootstock short, with 2-5 fleshy roots, fusiform, 2-4 cm, ca. 1 cm in diam. Leaves usually 4, verticillate at apex of stem, palmately compound; bases of petiole and petiolules with numerous lanceolate, stipulelike appendages; leaflets 3 or 4, obovate-elliptic to obovate-oblong, 9-10 × 3.5-4 cm (lateral ones smaller), membranous, abaxially glabrous, adaxially setose on veins (trichomes 1.5-2 mm), base attenuate, margin biserrate, apex long caudate-acuminate. Inflorescence a solitary, terminal umbel 20-50-flowered; peduncle ca. 12 cm; pedicels ca. 1 cm, glabrous. Ovary 2-carpellate; styles 2 divided, reflexed.

S Xizang [?Bhutan, ?N India, Nepal].

Forests; 2400-4200 m.

Aralia pseudoginseng (Wallich) Bentham ex C. B. Clarke; A. quinquefolia (Linnaeus) Decaisne & Planchon var. pseudoginseng (Wallich) Burkill.

Nepal

The phylogeny of Panax using the ITS sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA (Wen and Zimmer, 1996; Lee and Wen, 2004). The ITS suggests that (1) the Himalayan Panax pseudoginseng is closely related to P. stipuleanatus from southwestern China; (2) the P. pseudoginseng-P. stipuleanatus clade is basal among the Asiatic species. Wen indeed found Panax pseudoginseng sympatric with P. bipinnatifidus in the type locality of the former and in other locations in Nepal as well. However, Yoo et al. (2001) found that the two species collected in the same location had very distinct chloroplast DNA and nuclear ribosomal ITS profiles. Based on the morphological variation and the phylogenetic relationships, Wen (2001) proposed a classification scheme for Panax, in which Panax pseudoginseng belong to Subgenus Panax, Section Pseudoginseng.

Tubers single or fascicled, fusiform. Rhizomes short. Base of aerial stem with persistent glabrous and membranaceous scales. Stem glabrous, 25-50 cm long. Leaves 3-4, with persistent stipules; leaflets lanceolate or narrowly elliptic, upper surface with bristly hairs along veins and veinlets, lower surface glabrous. Inflorescence with 1-3 umbels, each 40-65 flowered. Fruit red, 1-2 seeded. Seeds broadly kidney-shaped, 7-7.5 mm long, 6-6.5 mm wide, 5-6 mm thick, surface rough.

Panax pseudoginseng is a species of the genus Panax. Common names include pseudoginseng, Nepal ginseng and Himalayan ginseng. Pseudoginseng belongs to the same scientific genus as ginseng. In Latin, the word panax means "cure-all", and the family of ginseng plants is one of the best-known herbs.