Rheum palmatum

Chinese rhubarb
The blooming white flowers of a Chinese rhubarb
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Core eudicots
Order:	Caryophyllales
Family:	Polygonaceae
Genus:	Rheum
Species:	R. palmatum
Binomial name
Rheum palmatum L.

Rheum palmatum, commonly called Chinese rhubarb,ornamental rhubarb,Turkish rhubarb, Turkey rhubarb, Indian rhubarb, Russian rhubarb or rhubarb root (and within Chinese herbal medicine da-huang).

The species R. tanguticum and R. officinale, also under the categorical term of the Chinese drug da-huang, are closely related to R. palmatum. Today, these three species are regarded as superior in performance to other species-existing rhubarbs. Though R palmatum is commonly misinterpreted to be one in the same with the familiar R. rhabarbarum garden rhubarb we eat, there are several facets falsifying this assumption. Size is the most evident of the facets used to differentiate these two closely related species. While most garden species only grow to a mere few feet in height, Chinese rhubarb can produce as high as a “six to ten foot jointed stalk,” with loosely branched clusters of flowers along the tips that mature red in color from their often yellow or white blooms.

Its leaves are rather “large, jagged and hand – shaped,” growing in width of at least two to three feet. It is important to recognize that only those species of Rheum with lobed leaves are accredited for their medicinal use. Subsequently, garden rhubarb, R. rhubarbarum, as well as any other variety of species with either “wavy” or “undulating leaves” are not founded for any medicinal purpose. Additionally, one can decipher Chinese rhubarb by its rather thick, deep roots whereas the perennial garden plant is composed predominantly of “fleshy rhizomes and buds (http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/growing).

Though native in the regions of western China, northern Tibet, and the Mongolian Plateau, Chinese Rhubarb was widely used in other parts of the world, such as Europe, for hundreds of years before its source of plant identity was actually discovered in the 18th century. As a consequence of these findings, today Chinese rhubarb is also found flourishing in the West and in the wild. It is extensively cultivated, no doubt for its great medicinal advantages and uses. Like all flowering plants, it is grown from the protective coat of a seed in the spring, or by “root division” in the seasons of Spring or Autumn, where the temperature is not yet too hot or too cold. A rather spacious environment where it can receive an abundance of sunlight for the production of sugars, as well as its development in “well-drained soil,” proves to be most efficient for the augmentation of this species. Since it is the roots and rhizome which serve as this plant’ source of medicinal usage, special care is taken in their preparation. When 6–10 years old, the rhizomes of these plants are removed from the ground in the Autumn when both its stems and leaves changed to yellow wild. Furthermore, the removal of the lateral rootlets and the crown are removed, leaving only the root. Any debris around the root is cleaned off, the coarse exterior bark removed, and the root cut and divided into cube-like pieces to increase its surface area, thereby decreasing the time needed for drying.

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Wikipedia