Japanese name: ハシリドコロ（走野老） Scientific name:Scopolia japonica
[Overview]
A perennial 30–60 cm tall, found along mountain streams.
The rhizome is thick and creeps sideways.
The leaves are simple and alternate, oblong, 6–18 cm long and 2.5–6 cm wide, and soft in texture.
The flowers are borne singly in the leaf axils and face downward.
The flowers are bell-shaped, 2 cm long, with 5 lobes at the tip, reddish purple on the outside and yellowish green on the inside.
The fruit is spherical, 1 cm across, and is enclosed in the large calyx.
[Uses]
Although it is a poisonous plant, the dried underground stem is used as a raw material for painkillers and eye drops.
[Notes]
The Japanese name comes from the root resembling that of Onidokoro of the Yamanoimo family, and from the fact that people who eat it suffer and run around.
