Paris (plant)

Paris
Paris quadrifolia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Monocots
Order:	Liliales
Family:	Melanthiaceae
Genus:	Paris L.
Synonyms[1]
Alopicarpus Neck. Demidovia Hoffm. Daiswa Raf. Cartalinia Szov. ex Kunth Euthyra Salisb. Kinugasa Tatew. & Sutô

Paris is a genus of flowering plants described by Linnaeus in 1753.^[2][3] It is widespread across Europe and Asia, with a center of diversity in China.^[1][4][5][6]

It consists of less than two dozen herbaceous plants: the best known species is Paris quadrifolia. Some Paris species are used in traditional Chinese medicine for their analgesic and anticoagulant properties, most notably as an ingredient of Yunnan Baiyao. Intense ethnopharmaceutical interest has significantly reduced their numbers.^[7]

These plants are closely related to Trillium, with the distinction traditionally being that Trillium contains species which have trimerous (three-petaled) flowers, and Paris contains species which have 4- to 11-merous flowers.^[8] A recent analysis places the genera Daiswa and Kinugasa in Paris, though the actual circumscription of the genus is debated.^[9]

species^[1]

1. Paris axialis - Sichuan, Yunnan
2. Paris bashanensis - Sichuan, Hubei
3. Paris caobangensis - Vietnam
4. Paris cronquistii - Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan
5. Paris daliensis - Yunnan, Guizhou
6. Paris delavayi - Vietnam, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan
7. Paris dulongensis - Yunnan
8. Paris dunniana - Yunnan, Guizhou, Hainan
9. Paris fargesii - Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bhutan, E Himalayas, N Myanmar, N Vietnam, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan
10. Paris forrestii - Tibet, Myanmar, Yunnan
11. Paris guizhouensis - Guizhou
12. Paris incompleta - Turkey, N + S Caucasus
13. Paris japonica - Honshu
14. Paris luquanensis - Yunnan
15. Paris mairei - Guizhou, W Sichuan, N Yunnan
16. Paris marmorata Stearn - Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan, Assam
17. Paris polyandra - Sichuan
18. Paris polyphylla - S China, E Himalayas, N Indochina
19. Paris quadrifolia - Europe + Asia from Spain + Iceland to Heilongjiang
20. Paris rugosa - Yunnan
21. Paris stigmatosa - Yunnan
22. Paris tetraphylla - Japan
23. Paris thibetica - N Myanmar, Assam, Bhutan, Gansu, Guizhou, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan
24. Paris undulata - Sichuan
25. Paris vaniotii - Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, N Myanmar
26. Paris verticillata - Siberia, Russian Far East, China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan
27. Paris vietnamensis - Yunnan, Guangxi, Vietnam

References

1. Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
2. Linnaeus, Carl von. 1753. Species Plantarum 1: 367
3. Tropicos, Paris L.
4. Govaerts, R.H.A. (2011). World checklist of selected plant families published update. Facilitated by the Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
5. Altervista Flora Italiana, Uva di volpe, Paris quadrifolia L. includes photos plus European distribution map
6. Flora of China Vol. 24 Page 88 重楼属 chong lou shu Paris Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 367. 1753.
7. Chun-Lin Long; Heng Li; Zhiqin Ouyang; Xiangyun Yang; Qin Li & Bruce Trangmar (2002). "Strategies for agrobiodiversity conservation and promotion: a case from Yunnan, China". Biodiversity and Conservation. 11: 1146–1154. doi:10.1023/a:1023085922265.
8. Susan B. Farmer & Edward E. Schilling (2002). "Phylogenetic analyses of Trilliaceae based on morphological and molecular data". Systematic Botany. 27 (4): 674–692.
9. Yunheng Ji; Peter W. Fritsch; Heng Li; Tiaojiang Xiao & Zhekun Zhou (2006). "Phylogeny and classification of Paris (Melanthiaceae) inferred from DNA sequence data". Annals of Botany. 98 (1): 245–256. doi:10.1093/aob/mcl095. PMC 2803534. PMID 16704998.