Codonopsis pilosula, also known as dang shen or poor man's ginseng, is a perennial species of flowering plant native to Northeast Asia and Korea and usually found growing around streambanks and forest openings under the shade of trees.
Codonopsis pilosula, Roots carrot-shaped or fusiform-cylindrical, 15-30 × 1-3 cm, often branched. Stems twining, 1-2 m, glabrous, branched; lateral branches 15-30 cm; branchlets 1-5 cm, sterile or fertile. Leaves on main stems and branches alternate, those on branchlets opposite; petiole 0.5-2.5 cm, sparsely shortly setose; blade abaxially gray-green, adaxially green, ovate or narrowly ovate, 1-7.3 × 0.8-5 cm, abaxially sparsely or densely appressed hirsute or villous, rarely glabrous, base subcordate, rounded, or truncate, margin crenulate, apex obtuse or acute. Flowers solitary and terminal on branches, pedicellate. The roots of C. pilosula (radix) are used in traditional Chinese medicine. The roots are harvested from the plant during the third or fourth year of growth and dried prior to sale.