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The "Ko-namiki" (Scutellaria guilielmii) belongs to Lamiaceae (the Mint family). It is a perennial herb that is distributed across Japan from Chiba and Ishikawa prefectures westward on Honshu, through Shikoku and Kyushu, to Yakushima, Tanegashima, the Tokara Islands, the Amami Islands, and Okinawa Island, as well as in Shaanxi, Hunan, and Zhejiang provinces in central China. It grows in forest floors and grasslands near the coast and reaches a height of 20 to 35 cm. It spreads by extending thin stolons underground. The leaves are heart-shaped, covered with soft hairs on both surfaces, and arranged in opposite pairs. From February to around May, it produces pairs of white, lipped flowers in the upper leaf axils. It is classified as Vulnerable (VU) in the Ministry of the Environment's Red List. It is called "連錢黄芩" (lian qian huang qin) in Chinese.
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