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

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

Phylogeny

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

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

Panax

Etymology

Panax species

Phylogeny

Gallery

References