Panax or ginseng is an important medicinal root. There are often prickly or stellate hairs on the vegetative parts.
Flowers contain a nectiferous disk.
Plant parts in the Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary. Flowers small and in umbels or rarely in heads, racemes or spikes. Fruit as a berry or drupe. Seeds have endosperm present. Placentation is axile and apical.