Zhi Mu

Anemarrhena asphodeloides is a tufted herbaceous perennial in the Asparagaceae (subfamily Agavoideae), the sole species of its genus, native to northern China, Mongolia and Korea, where it grows on dry sunny slopes, sandy grasslands and rocky open ground. Plants form dense clumps 60-100 cm tall, arising from a stout, creeping, knotty, yellow-brown rhizome covered with persistent leaf-base fibres. The basal leaves are very long and narrow, linear and grass-like, 20-70 cm long and 3-7 mm wide, with a tough, leathery texture and parallel venation. In summer the species sends up a tall, slender, leafless flowering scape ending in a long, sparse, spike-like raceme of small, six-tepalled flowers that are pale pink to greenish-white, opening in the late afternoon and evening and emitting a delicate fragrance. The fruits are small ovoid capsules containing a few black, three-angled seeds.