Sheep's milk (Bie Lu), Xianju County, called "mountain conch", also known as: milk tree (Botanical Names and Facts Tu Kao), mountain carrot, sand ginseng, four-leaf ginseng, scientific name: rotary-leaf party ginseng. Eustoma family, perennial trailing herb. Root stout, obovate-fusiform. Stem climbing slender, glabrous, purplish, up to 1 meter long. Leaves alternate on stems, minute; on branches usually 2 to 4 in fascicles, or opposite or nearly whorled, oblong-lanceolate, lanceolate to elliptic, 3 to 10 cm long, 1.5 to 4 cm wide, apex pointed, base cuneate, entire, or slightly sparsely micropavoidal-dentate, glabrous on both surfaces, grayish-white below; short-stalked. Flowers solitary or paired on top of branches; calyx tube 5-lobed; lobes ovate-lanceolate; corolla creamy white outside, dark purple inside, campanulate, shallowly 5-lobed, apex revolute, with reticulate veins; stamens 5, filaments and anthers several times as long as each other; ovary semi-inferior, style short, stigma 3-lobed. Capsule conical, with persistent calyx. Capsule conical, with persistent calyx. Born on mountain slopes, forests, and the sides of river valleys and other shady, moist places. It is distributed in the northeast and in Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangxi.
Common in the southern mountainous areas of this province, growing in the shady and moist areas under the shrubbery on the slopes; distributed in the northeast, north, east and south-central provinces of China.
1, four-leafed salsify:
Four-leafed salsify (whorl-leafed salsify), perennial herb, 30 to 50 centimeters high. The main root is thick and fat,
long conical or cylindrical, yellow-brown, rough, with transverse lines, and the tip has a reed head. Stems often solitary, rarely cespitose, unbranched except for inflorescences, glabrous. Basal leaves in clusters, ovate, long elliptic or suborbicular; stem leaves often in whorls of 4, occasionally in whorls of 5 to 6, highly variable in shape, from ovate, lanceolate to barred, 4 to 8 centimeters long, 1.5 to 3 centimeters wide, margin coarsely serrate, serrulate to entire, the wider the leaf, the coarser the teeth. Summer flowering, inflorescences paniculate, lower flowering branches verticillate, apical flowering branches sometimes alternate; calyx smooth and small, cup-shaped, apex 5-lobed, lobes striate; corolla blue, narrowly campanulate, ca. 1 cm, apex 5-lobed; stamens 5; pistil 1, with fleshy disk proximally, style slender, protruding from outside of corolla, stigma 2-lobed, ovary inferior. Capsule globose and slightly compressed, porous, containing numerous seeds.
2, apricot leaf salvia: perennial herb, 60-100 cm high, the whole plant is white fine hairs. The main root is thick and fat, slender and conical. The stem is single, erect, and branched above. Basal leaves long-stalked, leaf blade broadly ovate; stem leaves alternate, short-stalked or sessile; leaf blade ovate or narrowly ovate, 3-7 cm long, narrower the higher up the leaf, margins serrate with varying thickness. Flowers in summer, similar in width, blue. Capsule subglobose.
Habitat Distribution
1. Four-leafed saxifrage (Verticillaster) Born in the grass on shady slopes of mountains and fields, at the edge of forests or along roadsides. It is distributed in the northeast and Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guizhou, Yunnan and other places.
2. Apricot leaf salvia Born in the roadside, mountain slopes, rock crevices or grass. Distributed in East China, Central and South China and Sichuan and other regions.
Species origin
All plants of the same genus where the main root is thick and strong can be used as sasanqua (Nansha sasanqua) for medicine, and the following species are also common:
1. Broad-leaved sasanqua Adenophora pereskiaefolia (Fisch. ex Roem. et Schult.) Fisch.,ex Loud. It is distributed in Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Anhui, and other provinces.
2. Adenophora potaninii Korsh. Distributed in Hebei, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and other provinces.
3. Adenophora stenanthina (Ledeb.) Kitag. is distributed in the northeastern provinces.
4. Adenophora coronopifolia Fisch., distributed in the northeastern provinces.
5. Adenophora capillaris Hemsl., distributed in Sichuan Province.
6. Adenophora buueyana Diels, distributed in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.
7. Adenophora lilifolioides Pax et Hoffm., distributed in Tibet.
8. Adenophora paniculata Nannf., distributed in Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Gansu and other provinces.