Ferula sinkiangensis K. M. Shen

This species is used in Xinjiang as a regional substitute for the traditional Chinese medicine “a wei” (Ferula assafoetida Linnaeus).

Plants 0.5–1.5 m, strongly onion-scented. Rootstock thick, conical. Stem stout, pubescent, paniculate-branched, lower branches alternate, upper branches verticillate, often purplish red. Leaf blade gray-green, triangular-ovate in outline, ternate-3-pinnatisect; ultimate segments broadly elliptic, ca. 10 mm, shallowly lobed or toothed, base decurrent, adaxially sparsely pubescent, abaxially densely puberulent. Terminal umbel subsessile, lateral umbels (1–)2–4, opposite or alternate, peduncles elongate, exceeding terminal; umbels 8–12 cm across; bracts absent; rays 5–25, puberulent; bracteoles broadly lanceolate, deciduous. Petals abaxially puberulous. Stylopodium low-conic, base dilated, undulated-margined. Fruit ellipsoid, 10–12 × 5–6 mm, sparsely puberulent; vittae 3–4 in each furrow, unequal, 12–14 on commissure. Fl. and fr. Apr–Jun.

W Xinjiang (Yining).

Desert gravels; 800–900 m.