Licorice (scientific name: Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch), also known as: Guolao, sweet grass, Ural licorice, sweet root. A perennial herb of the Fabaceae family, genus Glycyrrhiza, with thick roots and rhizomes, 25–100 cm long and 0.6–3.5 cm in diameter. The outer bark varies in tightness, and the surface is reddish-brown or grayish-brown. The rhizome is cylindrical, with bud scars on the surface and pith in the center of the cross-section. It has a faint odor and a sweet, distinctive taste. A perennial herb with thick roots and rhizomes, 1–3 cm in diameter, brown on the outside and pale yellow inside. It has a sweet taste. The stem is erect, highly branched, 30–120 cm tall, densely covered with scaly glandular dots, bristle-like glandular bodies, and white or brown hairs.

Leaves are 5–20 cm long; stipules are triangular-lanceolate, about 5 mm long and 2 mm wide, densely covered with short white hairs on both sides; the leaf stalk is densely covered with brown glandular dots and short soft hairs; leaflets number 5–17, oval, long oval, or nearly round, 1.5–5 cm long and 0.8–3 cm wide, dark green on the upper surface and green on the lower surface, both sides densely covered with yellowish-brown glandular dots and short soft hairs, blunt at the tip with a short point, rounded at the base, with entire or slightly wavy margins, often somewhat recurved.