Angelica polymorpha ("Shiranesenkyu")

Japanese name: シラネセンキュウ （白根川芎）
Scientific name: Angelica polymorpha

[Overview]
A perennial found in shade in the mountains, at forest edges, along mountain streams and similar places.
The stem grows 80–150 cm tall; it is slender, hollow and erect, and branches in the upper part.
The stem is hairless.
Leaves are alternate, 3–4 times ternately pinnately compound, 15–30 cm long and 15–25 cm wide.
The leaflets are ovate, 3–5 cm long and 2.5–3.5 cm wide, with incised margins, though the degree of incision varies greatly.
The leaflets are thin, whitish on the underside, and have doubly serrate margins.
The leaf stalk is swollen like a sac.
A compound umbel 4–10 cm across at the stem tip bears many small white five-petaled flowers.
The petals are obovate, and the petals of the flowers on the outside of the inflorescence are slightly larger.
The inflorescence has almost no involucral bracts and bears several linear bractlets.
The stalk of the inflorescence and the flower stalks have stiff hairs and feel rough.
The fruit is a broadly elliptic mericarp 6–7 mm long, with broad, thin lateral wings.

[Uses]
The root is used medicinally.

[Notes]
The Japanese name derives from Mt. Shirane in Nikko.

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