A deciduous, hardy shrub, growing to 10 feet. It has 3-7 toothed leaflets on each stem.
Siberian ginseng is native to eastern Russia, China, Korea and Japan.
It can be grown from seed, but it is a difficult plant to germinate. The root is lifted in autumn and dried. Siberian ginseng owes its origins as a tonic to a Russian physician, I.I. Brekman, who was searching for plants that improve human performance in the 1950s. He studied ginseng, but it was too expensive for the Soviets to consider giving to millions of workers. So Brekman turned to eleuthero, a plant that grew in abundance in Russia.