Micropropagation of Glehnia (Glehnia littoralis Fr. Schmidt ex Miq.)

The genus Glehnia belongs to the family Umbelliferae and comprises only one species, G. littoralis Fr. Schmidt ex Miq. (Japanese name: Hamabōfū). Archangelica officinalis DC., G. leiocarpa Mathias, and Phellopterus littoralis Benth. are its synonyms. Some taxonomists regard the North American species, G. leiocarpa, as distinct, distinguished by its less pubescent fruit. G. littoralis is a perennial herb growing on sandy shores of the northern Pacific countries such as China, Korea, Japan, the USSR, Canada, and the USA (Hiroe 1979). Figure 1 shows a plant at the flowering stage. The chromosome number in a somatic cell is 2n = 22 (Kitamura and Murata 1978).