Mu Tou Hui

Patrinia heterophylla (with the closely allied P. scabra often treated as the same drug) is a perennial herb of the Caprifoliaceae family (formerly Valerianaceae), growing 30 to 80 cm tall from a stout woody rootstock that emits a strongly fetid, sour odor when fresh. Stems are erect, slender, and finely pubescent. Basal leaves are pinnately divided into three to seven narrow lobes, while cauline leaves are smaller, opposite, deeply pinnatifid, with linear to lanceolate segments. The inflorescence is a flat-topped to somewhat rounded terminal corymb of numerous small flowers; each flower has a five-lobed pale yellow tubular corolla 3 to 4 mm long. The fruit is a small dry achene subtended by a membranous winged bract. It grows on dry stony slopes and grasslands across northern and central China.