What are the main differences between Caoshen and pokeweed?

Caoshen generally refers to Seseli condensatum, a plant in the Apiaceae family, genus Ferula, which has not yet been introduced and cultivated artificially. Where are the differences between it and pokeweed?

1. Where are the differences between Caoshen and pokeweed?

1. Morphology

The roots are different: the root of Caoshen is cylindrical, slender, the root crown does not branch, and remains of withered leaf sheath fibers are retained. The root of pokeweed is thick and fleshy, obconical, with the outer skin pale yellow or grayish brown and the inner surface yellow-white.

The stems and leaves are different: the stem of Caoshen is slender, upright, with fine ribbed grooves, slightly rough, and sparsely hairy; the cauline leaves and lower stem leaves have short petioles, and the base of the petiole expands into a sheath; the leaf sheath is lanceolate and appressed to the stem; the leaf blade outline is broadly ovate, ternate-tripinnatisect, with the ultimate segments linear. The stem of pokeweed is upright, cylindrical, with longitudinal grooves, fleshy, green or purplish red, and much branched. The leaf blade is thinly papery, elliptic, long elliptic, or lanceolate-elliptic.

The flowers are different: the petals of Caoshen are pale green, broadly ovate, and covered with short pubescence on the outside; the flowers are polygamous, with male flowers in the middle of the inflorescence, female flowers at the edges, and bisexual flowers between the two. The filaments of pokeweed are white and the anthers are elliptic and pink; the flowers are bisexual, about 8 mm in diameter; the tepals are 5, white or yellow-green, elliptic, ovate, or oblong, with rounded and obtuse apexes.

2. Environment

Caoshen grows on sand dunes and riverbanks. Pokeweed often grows wild at the foot of mountains, in forests, along roadsides, and around the front and back of houses, and is distributed in plains, hills, and mountainous areas.

3. Distribution

Caoshen is produced in the desert areas north of the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang. It is also distributed in Kazakhstan and the Western Siberia region of the Soviet Union. Pokeweed is distributed from southwest to northeast China, and also in Korea, Japan, and India.

2. What are the effects of pokeweed?

In traditional Chinese medicine, pokeweed is used medicinally with its root. Traditional Chinese medicine considers it cold in nature and bitter in taste, toxic, and having the effects of expelling water and reducing swelling, promoting urination and defecation, and detoxifying and dissipating nodules; therefore, clinically it can be used for the treatment of symptoms and diseases such as edema and abdominal fullness, difficulty in urination and defecation, scrofula, and sores and toxins.