| Houttuynia | |
|---|---|
| |
| Houttuynia cordata | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Phylum: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Magnoliids |
| Order: | Piperales |
| Family: | Saururaceae |
| Genus: | Houttuynia Thunb. |
| Species | |
| |
Houttuynia is a genus of two species in the Saururaceae native to Southeast Asia. One species, H. cordata, is widely cultivated as a culinary herb. The genus was originally described in 1783 by Carl Peter Thunberg when he formally described H. cordata as the only species. It remained a monotypic genus until 2001 when Zheng Yin Zhu and Shi Liang Zhang discovered and described a second species native to China, H. emeiensis but the validity still unestablished.[1] It was named after Martinus Houttuyn.