Panax

The Panax (ginseng) genus belongs to the Araliaceae (ivy) family. Panax species are characterized by the presence of ginsenosides and gintonin. Panax is one of approximately 60 plant genera with a classical disjunct east Asian and east North American distribution. Furthermore, this disjunct distribution is asymmetric as only two of the ~18 species in genus are native to North America.

Etymology

File:MonkGinsengGarden.jpg

American ginseng at Monk Garden in Wisconsin .

The name Panax, meaning "all-healing" in Greek, shares the same origin as "panacea" and was used for this genus because Carl Linnaeus was aware of its wide use in Chinese medicine.

Panax species

Genus Panax

Subgenus Panax

Section Panax

Series Notoginseng

Panax notoginseng (Burkill) F.H.Chen (known as san qi, tian qi or tien chi)

Series Panax

Panax arunachalensis Taram, A.P.Das & Tag

Panax assamicus (Assam Ginseng)

Panax bipinnatifidus Seem.

var. angustifolius (Burkill) J.Wen

Panax ginseng C.A.Mey. (Asian ginseng, Chinese ginseng, Korean ginseng, Asiatic ginseng, Oriental ginseng)

Panax japonicus (T.Nees) C.A.Mey. (Japanese ginseng)

Panax quinquefolius L. (American ginseng)

Panax sokpayensis Shiva K.Sharma & Pandit

Panax siamensis J. Wen, 2023

Panax vietnamensis Ha & Grushv.

Panax wangianus S.C.Sun

Panax zingiberensis C.Y.Wu & Feng

Section Pseudoginseng

Panax pseudoginseng Wall.

Panax stipuleanatus H.T.Tsai & K.M.Feng

Subgenus Trifolius

Panax trifolius L.

Hybrids:

• Panax ginseng × Panax quinquifolius (F1 male sterile, roots bigger than parents)
• Panax japonicus f. typicum × Panax quinquifolius

Phylogeny

Based on chloroplast genomes (Manzanilla et al. 2018 and Xia et al. 2025): Template:Clade

Note: Plants of the World Online treats P. major Template:Au as a junior synonym of P. bipinnatifidus. Flora of China treats it as P. japonicus var. major Template:Au.

References

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