Skullcap, Baical (Huang-Qin,
Golden Root)
Scutellaria baicalensis
Family: Lamiaceae
Herbaceous perennial. Native to the shores of Lake Baikal, Mongolia,
Siberia, and the Chihli and Shantung provinces of China. The purple
flowers are like schools of dolphin breaking through green waves in a summer
sea. The part used in traditional Chinese medicine is the dried root,
which has a bitter and cold energetic. Contains distinctive flavones,
specifically baicalin and wogonin, which have antiallergic, diuretic, hypotensive,
antibacterial, antiviral, tranquilizing and fever-reducing effects.
It functions a little like Goldenseal, but our analysis showed no presence
of berberine or hydrastine. This is one of the best Chinese plants
to grow organically in America. Not only is it a very striking bedding
plant, bearing one of the nicest flowers available from this catalog, but
there is on-going demand for the root, which attains harvestable size after
only 2 years. Cultivation: Easy. Sow seed in early
spring. Germ. in ~24 days. Prefers well-drained soil in the
full sun. Cold hardy. Space plants 12 inches apart. To 12 inches
tall. As the plants age they become wider, much like humans in middle
age, but unlike humans, the seed they produce becomes increasingly
viable the older they get.
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