Picrorhiza kurrooa Royle

Japanese: コオウレン（英語表記）Picrorhiza kurrooa Royle

A perennial herb of the Scrophulariaceae family that grows in alpine grasslands (illustration). Many leaves grow densely at the end of a thick rhizome. The leaves are spoon-shaped or oval, 3-6 cm long. Flower stalks grow from between the leaves, and the stalks are 5-10 cm tall, with a 2 cm long raceme at the end. In summer, a dozen small white or purple-blue flowers bloom. The corolla has a short, tubular, labia shaped corolla, with a large upper lip and a short lower lip with three lobes. There are four stamens. The capsule is oval. It is distributed from the western Himalayas to Kashmir. There are two species in the genus Picrorhiza , and the other species, P. scrophulariiflora Pennell, is found in the eastern Himalayas from Nepal and Tibet to the Yunnan and Sichuan provinces of China.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

高山の草地に生えるゴマノハグサ科の多年草（イラスト）。太い根茎の先に多くの葉が密生する。葉はさじ形または卵形で，長さ3～6cm。葉の間から花茎を伸ばし，花茎は高さ5～10cm，先に長さ2cmほどの総状花序をつくり，夏，十数個の小さな白色または紫青色の花をつける。花冠は短い筒状の唇形，上唇1枚は大きく，下唇は短くて3裂する。おしべ4本。蒴果（さくか）は卵形。ヒマラヤ西部からカシミールに分布する。コオウレン属Picrorhizaには2種類あり，もう1種P.scrophulariiflora Pennellはヒマラヤ東部のネパール，チベットから中国の雲南省，四川省にみられる。

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