Pollia japonica Thunb.

The root has sedative, stimulant, and carminative properties, and is used for the treatment of colds and vertigo.

Herbs perennial. Stems erect or ascending, 30--50 cm × 3--8 mm, puberulent. Leaves sessile or base attenuate into winged petiole; leaf sheaths glabrous; leaf blade narrowly elliptic, 10--30 × 3--7 cm, subglabrous and scabrous adaxially, glabrous abaxially. Inflorescence much longer than distal leaves; peduncle 15--30 cm, puberulent; cincinni numerous, 2--4 cm, often in several distant whorls, some in panicles, puberulent; involucral bracts lanceolate, puberulent; bracts membranous. Sepals ovate-orbicular, ca. 5 mm, glabrous, persistent. Petals white, obovate-spatulate, ca. 3 mm. Stamens 6, all fertile, rarely staminodes 1 or 2 with shorter filaments. Fruit globose, ca. 5 mm in diam. Fl. Jul--Sep, fr. Sep--Oct.

SE Anhui (Huang Shan, Xiuning Xian), Fujian, N Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, SW Hubei (Laifeng Tujia Zu Zizhixian, Xuan’en Xian), Hunan, Jiangxi, SE Sichuan (Pengshui Xian), Taiwan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea].

Forests in ravines; near sea level to 1200 m.

Pollia japonica, known as East Asian pollia in English, yabumyoga (ヤブミョウガ) in Japanese, and dùruò (杜若) in Chinese, is a perennial flower native to East Asia. Its niche is forests 0–1200 m. It is native in Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Sichuan Provinces of China. It is also found in Taiwan, Japan, and Korea.