What Kind of Grass Is Agrimony? Get to Know This Plant

Agrimony, also known as Hairy Agrimony, Tuoli Grass, and Wolf's Fang Grass, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the genus Agrimonia of the Rosaceae family. The whole plant, roots, and winter buds are used medicinally, and the tender stems and leaves are edible. It is not only nutritious but also has strong anti-cancer properties. It is produced in all provinces and regions of northern and southern China, mostly growing in forests, on hillsides, and by roadsides, and is also distributed in central Europe as well as the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Korea, Japan, and northern Vietnam.

The roots of agrimony are mostly tuberous in shape, the rhizome is short, and the base often has 1 to several underground buds. The stem is 30-120 cm tall, covered with sparse soft hairs and short soft hairs, rarely with sparse long stiff hairs on the lower part. The leaves are interrupted odd-pinnate compound leaves, and the petiole is covered with sparse soft hairs or short soft hairs. The leaflets are sessile or short-stalked, obovate-elliptic or obovate-lanceolate. The stipules are herbaceous, green, sickle-shaped, rarely ovate, with an acute or acuminate apex, and the margins have sharp serrations or lobes; the stipules on the lower stem are sometimes ovate-lanceolate.

The inflorescence of agrimony is a terminal spike-like raceme, branched or unbranched, the inflorescence axis is covered with soft hairs, and the pedicel is 1-5 mm long and covered with soft hairs. The bracts are usually deeply 3-lobed, the lobes are band-shaped, and the bracteoles are ovate and opposite, entire or with split margins. The flowers are 6-9 mm in diameter, the sepals are triangular-ovate, and the petals are yellow and oblong. The fruit is obovate-conical, with 10 ribs on the outside, covered with sparse soft hairs, and with several layers of hooked prickles at the top; it is upright when young and closes together when mature, 7-8 mm long including the hooked prickles, with the widest diameter 3-4 mm. The flowering and fruiting period is from May to December.

Agrimony prefers a warm and humid environment. The suitable growth temperature is 20-30°C. It has no strict requirements for soil, but deep, loose, and fertile sandy loam is best. It is propagated by seeds or root division. For spring sowing, it is late March in the south and mid-to-late April in the north; for autumn sowing, it is late September to early October in the south and late October to early November in the north before the ground freezes. Root division propagation can be carried out in both spring and autumn.

Agrimony is bitter and astringent in taste, neutral in nature, and enters the intestine, stomach, and spleen meridians. It has the effects of stopping bleeding, strengthening the stomach, lubricating the intestines, stopping diarrhea, and killing parasites. It mainly treats fatigue and exhaustion, irregular menstruation in women, red flooding and white vaginal discharge, stomach cold and abdominal pain, red and white dysentery, vomiting blood, coughing blood, intestinal wind, blood in the urine, uterine bleeding, duodenal bleeding, and other conditions. Agrimonine extracted from the whole plant is a hemostatic drug.