Chinese Thoroughwax

Sinai (St.Katherine).

Europe, central Asia, Himalayas.

Stony ground.

Perennial.

Perennial, up to 1 m tall; base woody. Basal leaves lanceolate, upper lamina broad, lower narrowed into a petiole, veins 7, apex acute, mucronate; middle and upper leaves linear to lanceolate, gradually shorter, falcate, veins 7-9, base slightly amplexicaul, apex acuminate. Involucre of 1-3 minute bracts or lacking. Rays 5-8. Involucel of 5 minute, 3-veined bractlets, shorter than the flowering umbellet. Pedicels shorter than the fruits. Fruit oblong, 3-4 mm long; furrows 3-vittate.

Very widely distributed through temperate Eurasia and classified by H. Wolff into a bewildering and unsatisfactory range of subspecies, varieties and forms which, until there is a complete new monographic review of the group, cannot be properly evaluated.

Distribution: Europe, Asia.

Bupleurum falcatum, also known as sickle-leaved hare's-ear, Chinese thoroughwax, sickle hare's ear and sickle-leaf hare's ear, is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae.

It is endemic to Europe and Western Asia.

Bupleurum falcatum has been used in Chinese medicine for over 2,000 years as a "liver tonic".

Bupleurum falcatum has been found to possess antidepressant properties, mediated through the serotonergic & noradrenergic systems (although the precise mechanism remains to be found).