Ypsilandra

{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants}} {{Automatic taxobox |image = Ypsilandra thibetica Franch. flower spike.jpg |image_caption = ''Ypsilandra thibetica'' |taxon = Ypsilandra |authority = Franch.<ref name=trop>The genus ''Ypsilandra'' and the type (''Ypsilandra thibetica'') were first published in ''Nouvelles archives du muséum d'histoire naturelle'', sér. 2, 10: 93. 1888. {{ cite web |url=http://www.tropicos.org/Name/40027933 |title=Name - ''Ypsilandra'' Franch. |quote=Type Specimens … ''Ypsilandra thibetica'' Franch. |work=Tropicos |publisher=Missouri Botanical Garden |location=Saint Louis, Missouri |access-date=October 12, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019180543/http://www.tropicos.org/Name/40027933 |archive-date=2014-10-19 |url-status=live }}</ref> |type_species = ''Ypsilandra thibetica'' |type_species_authority = Franch.<ref name=trop/> }}

'''''Ypsilandra''''' is a genus of at least six herbaceous plant species, first described as a genus in 1888. This genus is a member of the Melanthiaceae<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.tropicos.org/Name/40027933 |title=Tropicos, ''Ypsilandra'' Franch. |access-date=2012-10-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019180543/http://www.tropicos.org/Name/40027933 |archive-date=2014-10-19 |url-status=live }}</ref> and is native to East Asia (China, the Himalayas, Myanmar, Thailand).<ref name=h>{{cite web|url=http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=291638|title=World Checklist of Selected Plant Families: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew|access-date=4 February 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=135220 |title=Flora of China Vol. 24 Page 86 <big>丫蕊花属</big> ya rui hua shu ''Ypsilandra'' Franchet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. ser. 2, 10: 93. 1887. |access-date=2014-10-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924153026/http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=135220 |archive-date=2015-09-24 |url-status=live }}</ref>

''Ypsilandra'' species are perennial plants that grow from thick rhizomes. They are associated with sloping, forested habitats. They are very infrequently cultivated in the West. Their leaves are generally long and thin, growing in a rosette from the base of the plant. ''Ypsilandra'' species produce flowers on a long scape arising from the intersection of the leaves and the stem. The inflorescences consist of a cluster of nodding, radially-symmetrical tube-shaped flowers with six tepals. The stamens protrude beyond the tepals. Depending on the species, the tepals may be white, pink, purple, or yellow.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Chen Xinqi and Minoru N. Tamura |year=2000 |journal=Flora of China |volume=24 |pages=86–87 |url=http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/PDF/PDF24/ypsilandra.pdf |title=Flora of China 24: 86–87. 2000. |access-date=2009-03-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303171946/http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/PDF/PDF24/ypsilandra.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-03 |url-status=live }}</ref>

; Species<ref name=h/> * ''Ypsilandra alpina'' F.T.Wang & Tang - Tibet, Yunnan, N Myanmar * ''Ypsilandra cavaleriei'' H.Lév. & Vaniot - Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan * ''Ypsilandra jinpingensis'' W.H.Chen, Y.M.Shui & ZhiY.Yu - Yunnan, N Vietnam * ''Ypsilandra kansuensis'' R.N.Zhao & Z.X.Peng - Gansu * ''Ypsilandra thibetica'' Franch. - Sichuan, Hunan, Guangxi, Taiwan * ''Ypsilandra yunnanensis'' W.W.Sm. & Jeffrey - Nepal, Yunnan, Bhutan, Assam, Myanmar

''Ypsilandra thibetica'' is used in traditional Chinese medicine, especially in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, as a haemostatic.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Bai-Bo Xie|year=2006 |journal=Chemistry and Biodiversity |volume= 3 |pages=1211–1218 |doi=10.1002/cbdv.200690122 |pmid=17193234 |title=Five new steroidal compounds from Ypsilandra thibetica |issue=11|s2cid=40156700 |display-authors=etal}}</ref>

==Gallery== <gallery> File:Ypsilandra thibetica (Melanthiaceae) plant.jpg|''Ypsilandra thibetica'' cultivated plant of a white-flowered form growing in Cambridge Botanic Gardens, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom. File:Ypsilandra thibetica Franch. flowers and leaves.jpg|''Ypsilandra thibetica'' frontal close-up of inflorescence of a pink-flowered form, showing interiors of flowers with gynoecium and androecium. Cultivated plant, RHS Rosemoor garden, Devon, U.K. </gallery>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Ypsilandra}} * [http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/PDF/PDF24/ypsilandra.pdf Flora of China treatment: ''Ypsilandra'']

Category:Melanthiaceae Category:Flora of East Himalaya Category:Flora of Indo-China Category:Flora of China Category:Melanthiaceae genera