Physochlaina physaloides (L.) G. Don

Medicinal herb used for relieving muscular spasm and pain. The flowers and stems can be used as a haemostatic.

Plants 30-50 cm tall. Stems glandular pubescent, glabrescent. Petiole 1-4 cm; leaf blade ovate, 3-8 × 2.5-5 cm, glandular pubescent, glabrescent, base broadly cuneate, decurrent into petiole, margin entire and sinuate, apex acute. Inflorescences umbellate; bracts scalelike. Pedicel 5-10 mm, glandular pubescent. Calyx narrowly tubular-campanulate, 6-8 × 4 mm; lobes ca. 2 mm, ciliate. Corolla purple, funnelform, more than twice as long as calyx; tube pale purple. Stamens slightly exserted. Style obviously exserted. Fruiting calyx inflated, ovoid or globose, 1.5-2.5 × 1-1.5 cm, mouth contracted, not closed. Capsules ca. 8 mm in diam. Seeds yellow, compressed reniform, ca. 3 × 2.5 mm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May-Jul.

Hebei, Heilongjiang, Nei Mongol, Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia]

Grassy slopes, forest edges; ca. 1000 m.

Hyoscyamus physaloides Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 180. 1753 (as physalodes); Physochlaena dahurica Miers; Physo-chlaena physaloides (Linnaeus) Miers; Physochlaina pseudo-physaloides Pascher; Scopolia physaloides (Linnaeus) Dunal.