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Summary. Fritillaria yuminensis X.Z. Duan (Liliaceae) is described and illu-strated; the species in the Fritillaria verticillata complex are listed and their relationship to the rest of the genus, as revealed by DNA studies, is described. The cultivation of Fritillaria (bei mu) for medicine and its conservation in China are summarised. The bulbs of Fritillaria, called bei mu, are one of the most popular herbal medicines in China, and are collected in the wild throughout the country, and even in neighbouring areas. Kingdon Ward, while describing his travels in northern Burma in 1931, describes teams of 20 or more Chinese collectors coming over the Himalaya to collect bulbs of Fritillaria cirrhosa D. Don (Kingdon Ward, 1937). The bulbs are collected while the plants are flowering, dried, powdered and used as an infusion or made into pills. Several species are cultivated for Traditional Chinese Medicine in different parts of China, and the species illustrated here was discovered in the course of researc