''Helonias'' is a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s. It contains 12 species, with 11 native to the Himalayas and eastern Asia and one ('' H. bullata'') to the eastern United States. Some authors treat ''Helonias'' as a monotypic genus containing only ''H. bullata'', and place the Asian species in the separate genera ''Ypsilandra'' and ''Heloniopsis''. Noriyuka Tanaka concluded that the 12 species were broadly similar in morphological and ecological characteristics and should be placed in a single genus. Tanaka divides the genus into two sections; sect. ''Helonias'', consisting only of ''H. bullata'', and sect. ''Heloniopsis'' which includes the 11 Asian species. Sect. ''Helionopsis'' is composed of two subsections; subsect. ''Ypsilandra'' includes of five species previously published under the genus ''Ypsilandra'', and subsect. ''Heloniopsis'' includes six species in two series, ser. ''Umbellatae'' with three species from Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands, and ser. ''Heloniopsis'', with three species from Japan, Korea, and southern Sakhalin.Tanaka, N. (2019) Taxonomy, evolution and phylogeography of the genus ''Helonias'' (Melanthiaceae) revisited. ''Phytotaxa'' 390 (1): 1–84. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.390.1.1 '' Helonias thibetica'' 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 ...

, especially in

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

and

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 ...

provinces, as a haemostatic.

Species

12 species are accepted. *'' Helonias alpina'' – southeastern Tibet and northern Myanmar *'' Helonias breviscapa'' – south-central and southern Japan *'' Helonias bullata'' – eastern United States *'' Helonias jinpingensis'' – south-central China (southeastern Yunnan) and northern Vietnam *'' Helonias kawanoi'' – Ryukyu Islands *'' Helonias koreana'' – Korea *'' Helonias leucantha'' – Ryukyu Islands *'' Helonias orientalis'' – Korea, Japan, and southern Sakhalin *'' Helonias parviflora'' – south-central China (Guizhou) *'' Helonias thibetica'' – central and southern China *'' Helonias umbellata'' – Taiwan *'' Helonias yunnanensis'' – central and eastern Himalayas, northern Myanmar, and south-central China (Yunnan)

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2709320 Melanthiaceae Melanthiaceae genera Taxa described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus