Vincetoxicum pycnostelma ("Suzusaiko")

Japanese name: スズサイコ （鈴柴胡）
Scientific name: Vincetoxicum pycnostelma

[Overview]
A perennial 40–100 cm tall, found in sunny grasslands from lowlands to mountains.
It produces many somewhat thick fibrous roots.
The stem is green and slender, and usually does not branch.
Leaves are simple and opposite, long lanceolate to linear-oblong, 6–13 cm long and 0.4–1.5 cm wide, somewhat thick, almost sessile, and either hairless or with rather short hairs on the margin.
The leaf margin is entire.
Cymes arise at the stem tip and in the upper leaf axils, with an inflorescence axis 2–3 cm long.
The flowers are star-shaped, about 1 cm across, yellowish brown to greenish brown, and the corona is ovate and erect.
The flowers usually open in the evening and close in the morning.
The buds are round.
The fruit is a slender follicle 5–8 cm long, which splits when ripe and releases seeds with long white hairs.

[Notes]
The name resembles that of Mishima-saiko in the Apiaceae, and compares the buds to bells.

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