Atractylodes lancea Thunb. is a species of Atractylodes that grows in central China. It is one source of cong zhu, a Chinese herbal medicine that acts primarily on the digestive system. Grasslands, forests, thickets, rock crevices; 200-2500 m. Anhui, Chongqing, Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Russia]. Herbs (15-)30-100 cm tall. Rhizome thick, horizontal or ascending. Stems solitary or tufted, unbranched or apically few branched, ± glabrous. Leaves ± rigidly papery, green, concolorous, glabrous or abaxially sparsely cobwebby. Basal leaves withered at anthesis. Lower and middle cauline leaves petiolate but lower ones sometimes subsessile; petiole 0.5-8 cm; leaf blade 8-12 × 5-8 cm, undivided or divided almost to base into 3-5(-9) pinnately arranged segments.