Paris is a genus of flowering plants described by Linnaeus in 1753. It is widespread across Europe and Asia, with a center of diversity in China.
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.
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. A recent analysis places the genera Daiswa and Kinugasa in Paris, though the actual circumscription of the genus is debated.
species Paris axialis - Sichuan, Yunnan Paris bashanensis - Sichuan, Hubei Paris caobangensis - Vietnam Paris cronquistii - Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan Paris daliensis - Yunnan, Guizhou Paris delavayi - Vietnam, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan Paris dulongensis - Yunnan Paris dunniana - Yunnan, Guizhou, Hainan Paris fargesii - Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bhutan, E Himalayas, N Myanmar, N Vietnam, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan Paris forrestii - Tibet, Myanmar, Yunnan Paris guizhouensis - Guizhou Paris incompleta - Turkey, N + S Caucasus Paris japonica - Honshu Paris luquanensis - Yunnan Paris mairei - Guizhou, W Sichuan, N Yunnan Paris marmorata Stearn - Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan, Assam Paris polyandra - Sichuan Paris polyphylla - S China, E Himalayas, N Indochina Paris quadrifolia - Europe + Asia from Spain + Iceland to Heilongjiang Paris rugosa - Yunnan Paris stigmatosa - Yunnan Paris tetraphylla - Japan Paris thibetica - N Myanmar, Assam, Bhutan, Gansu, Guizhou, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan Paris undulata - Sichuan Paris vaniotii - Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, N Myanmar Paris verticillata - Siberia, Russian Far East, China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan Paris vietnamensis - Yunnan, Guangxi, Vietnam