Sanicula chinensis

Sanicula chinensis is a perennial herb of the Apiaceae native to East Asia, occurring in moist forests and shaded valleys in China, Korea, and Japan. Plants reach 30-100 cm tall from a short rhizome with fibrous roots. The basal leaves are long-petiolate and palmately three- to five-parted, with broadly obovate to rhombic segments that are doubly serrate to incised along the margins; cauline leaves are smaller and progressively reduced upward. The slender stems branch above and bear compact, few-rayed compound umbels; each ultimate umbellule consists of a tight cluster of small greenish-white to pale yellow flowers with reflexed petals, surrounded by lanceolate bracts and bracteoles. Both staminate and bisexual flowers occur within the same inflorescence. The fruit is a globose-ovoid schizocarp 4-6 mm long, densely covered with hooked bristles that catch on fur and clothing for epizoochorous dispersal, a defining feature of the genus Sanicula (sanicles, or snakeroots). The plant flowers in early summer and fruits through late summer.