| Panax | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Panax quinquefolius | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Apiales |
| Family: | Araliaceae |
| Subfamily: | Aralioideae |
| Genus: | Panax L. |
| Species | |
See text | |
The Panax (ginseng) genus belongs to the Araliaceae [1] (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. [2] Furthermore, this disjunct distribution is asymmetric as only two of the ~18 species in genus are native to North America.
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.[ citation needed ]
Genus Panax [3]
Hybrids:
Based on chloroplast genomes (Manzanilla et al. 2018 and Xia et al. 2025): [18] [19]
Aralia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| subg. Trifolius ser. Panax sect. Pseudoginseng ser. Panax ser. Notoginseng sect. Pseudoginseng ser. Panax | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Note: Plants of the World Online treats P. major(Burkill) C. Y. Wu & K. M. Feng as a junior synonym of P. bipinnatifidus. Flora of China treats it as P. japonicus var. major(Burkill) C. Y. Wu & K. M. Feng. [20]