(DC.) Pimenov & Kljuykov
Description
Ligusticopsis wallichiana is a Himalayan umbellifer ranging from Pakistan and northern India through Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan into south-western China and Myanmar. The 406 GBIF records lie chiefly within this native arc, the European and North American points reflecting herbarium and garden material. It occupies subalpine and alpine meadows, forest clearings, open slopes and streamsides, generally between about 3000 and 4300 m, where it is a characteristic tall herb of moist Himalayan grassland. The plants photographed below Dzongri in Sikkim at 3700 to 3900 m in August illustrate the species at the height of the monsoon flowering season on these damp, herb-rich slopes.
It is a stout, glabrous perennial herb arising from a thick, aromatic rootstock, with erect, ribbed, often purplish stems. The leaves are large and several times pinnate (ternate-pinnate), the ultimate segments lanceolate to ovate and toothed, the lower leaves long-petiolate with sheathing bases. The inflorescence is a terminal compound umbel with numerous rays, subtended by narrow bracts and bracteoles; the small flowers are white. The fruit is an oblong-ellipsoid, dorsally compressed schizocarp with prominently winged lateral ribs, splitting into two mericarps.
Long familiar as Selinum wallichianum (its WordPress URL preserves that name), the species was transferred to Ligusticopsis by Pimenov and Kljuykov in their revision of the Selinum-Ligusticum complex, reflecting carpological and molecular evidence. The aromatic root has a history of use in Himalayan folk medicine. Common and widespread across its range, it is not considered threatened and forms a conspicuous element of high Himalayan meadow vegetation.
Author: (DC.) Pimenov & Kljuykov · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Pimenov & Kljuykov Umbelliferae revision