Herbs annual or biennial, (5-)10-25(-40) cm tall, puberulent with clavate or capitate trichomes. Stems erect, branched basally and above. Petiole of basal leaves (0.5-)1-3 cm; leaf blade oblong, lanceolate, or oblanceolate, 1.5-4(-5) × 0.7-1.2(-1.5) cm, pinnatifid, sinuate, or dentate. Upper cauline leaves sessile; leaf blade narrowly lanceolate, linear-oblong, or linear, 0.6-3(-4) cm × 1-3(-5) mm, base subauriculate or sometimes cuneate, margin remotely serrate or entire, apex acute to subobtuse. Fruiting pedicels slender, often recurved, 2-4(-5) mm, puberulent only adaxially with clavate or capitate trichomes, slightly flattened or narrowly winged. Sepals caducous, oblong, 0.7-0.8 × 0.3-0.4 mm, glabrous or puberulent, white at margin and apex. Petals absent, or rudimentary, linear, ca. 0.3 mm. Stamens 2; filaments 0.7-0.8 mm; anthers broadly ovate, 0.1-0.2 mm. Fruit broadly elliptic, 2.2-3.1 × 1.7-2.3 mm, widest at middle, apex narrowly winged; apical notch 0.1-0.3 mm; style 0.05-0.15 mm, included in apical notch. Seeds reddish brown, ovate-oblong, 1.1-1.3 × 0.6-0.8 mm, wingless, finely papillate; cotyledons incumbent.

Antiasthmatic, antitussive, diuretic and purgative. The seed is also cardiotonic (seed); expectorant (root); antibacterial (plant)

Flora of China
Plants For A Future

A decoction of the leaves is used in the treatment of asthma, coughs, nausea, oedema and pleurisy. The decoction of dried ripe seeds are used for treating cough with copious sputum, stuffy chest, and asthma due to accumulation of phlegm in the lung, insomnia, edema and and diuresis.

Jing-Nuan Wu. An Illustrated Chinese Materia Medica. P: 374, Oxford University Press, Inc.2005.