Nan Sha Shen

Adenophora tetraphylla, the southern ladybell, is a perennial herb of the Campanulaceae family growing 60 to 130 cm tall from a stout, fleshy, white to pale yellow taproot that exudes a milky latex when cut. Stems are erect, slender, glabrous to sparsely pubescent, and usually unbranched below the inflorescence. Leaves are arranged in whorls of three to six (typically four, giving the species its name), narrowly ovate to lanceolate, 3 to 10 cm long, with finely serrate margins. The inflorescence is an open terminal panicle of nodding bell-shaped flowers; each flower has a pale blue to violet five-lobed corolla 1.5 to 2 cm long and an exserted style. The fruit is an inverted-conical capsule that opens by basal pores. It grows in mountain grasslands and open forests across East Asia.