''Anemarrhena'' is a plant

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Asparagaceae Asparagaceae (), known as the asparagus family, is a family of flowering plants, placed in the order Asparagales of the monocots. The family name is based on the edible garden asparagus, '' Asparagus officinalis''. This family includes both ...

, subfamily

Agavoideae Agavoideae is a subfamily of monocot flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, order Asparagales. It has previously been treated as a separate family, Agavaceae. The group includes many well-known desert and dry-zone types, such as the agaves ...

. It has only one species, ''Anemarrhena asphodeloides'', native to China and Mongolia. Some authors have placed it in its own family, Anemarrhenaceae.

Distribution

The plant is native to China and

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

, occurring in the western half of China, from

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

Northeast China Northeast China () is a geographical region of China, consisting officially of three provinces Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The heartland of the region is the Northeast China Plain, the largest plain in China with an area of over . The regi ...

. It has been introduced into Taiwan and Korea.

Traditional medicine

The plant name in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

is ''zhīmǔ'' (知母) and its

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...

is used in

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...

.Ya, Wang, Feng Fang, and Wang Zhe. "Determination Of Selected Elements In Aqueous Extractions Of A Traditional Chinese Medicine Formula By ICP-MS And FAAS: Evaluation Of Formula Rationality." ''Analytical Letters'' 43.6 (2010): 983-992. ''Academic Search Premier.'' Web. 12 Nov. 2014.

References

External links

Anemarrhena asphodeloides Bge.
Medicinal Plant Images Database (School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University)
知母, Common Anemarrhena Rhizome, Zhi Mu
Chinese Medicine Specimen Database (School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University) Agavoideae Flora of China Flora of Korea Flora of Mongolia Taxa named by Alexander von Bunge {{Asparagaceae-stub