Peucedanum praeruptorum Seeds | Hare’s-ear Root

Hare's-ear Root (Peucedanum praeruptorum) with its feathery aromatic foliage and open umbels of white flowers — Hare’s-ear Root (*Peucedanum praeruptorum*): Apiaceae, a mountain umbellifer of central China grown for the root called Qian Hu.

LATIN NAME: Peucedanum praeruptorum

COMMON NAME: Hare’s-ear Root

Plant Profile

Hare’s-ear Root is a slender, upright perennial of the carrot family from the mountain slopes of central China, growing forty to one hundred and twenty centimetres tall from a thick, aromatic root. Its finely cut, feathery foliage has the fresh parsley smell typical of the family, and in summer it opens broad, flat umbels of small white flowers that hum with beetles, hoverflies and bees.

It is a plant of cool, sunny, well-drained mountain ground, thriving where summers are not too hot. The root, dried and sliced, is the drug Qian Hu, a classical Chinese remedy with a record reaching back to the earliest materia medica. The hollow flowering stems carry the feathery leaves sheathing them at intervals, and the whole plant has the fresh, aniseed-adjacent smell that marks many of the family’s medicinal roots.

Science & Biotechnology

The root’s coumarins, the praeruptorins, are the active research focus: these compounds have been studied for effects on calcium channels and bronchial function, and the species’ chemistry has been mapped in pharmacognostic work across its range.

Botanically the umbellifers are a family of lookalikes, and the species is regularly confused in herb markets with its relatives Bai Zhi and others; studies of the group’s root anatomy and chemistry exist precisely to separate them. Work on the praeruptorins has made the species a fixture in pharmacology journals, and its root is among the Chinese herbs most frequently cited in studies of coumarin chemistry. Cultivation studies in the drug’s producing regions have compared sowing densities and harvest ages, since root quality in this family shifts with the plant’s age and the season of lifting.

Uses & Benefits

In Chinese medicine Qian Hu is a classical herb for coughs and chest congestion, a professional matter. In the garden the plant earns its place as an umbellifer: open white plates for the pollinators, feathery foliage for texture, and a tidy presence in the herb border.

Its use records span two millennia of Chinese medical literature, and the root remains in steady trade; gardeners grow it mainly for its looks and its pollinator value. In the herb market the root is sliced into thin, pale-yellow discs, and the trade grades it by the ring pattern visible on the cut face, a detail buyers learn by eye. Gardeners who grow it for the insects alone report hoverflies and soldier beetles working the umbels through late summer, when few other white plates are in bloom.

Growing from Seed

Seed is short-lived and benefits from a period of cold stratification; sow fresh in autumn or chilled seed in spring, on the surface of a loose compost, covering barely, and keep cool and moist.

Grow the seedlings on without disturbing the root, pot deep, and plant out into a sunny, sharply drained position that stays cool in summer. The root is the harvest, so give the plants two undisturbed years. Let one or two plants stand and flower fully to shed seed; self-sown seedlings appear in cool soil around the parent and can be lifted and moved the following spring. In hot districts, position it where it receives morning sun and afternoon shade; the mountain plant resents full baking heat on its crown at midsummer.

Our Take

A classical Chinese umbellifer for the cool border: white plates for the insects, feathery leaves, and a root with two thousand years of literature behind it.

Herb Seeds