Thysanotus chinensis is a species of flowering plant in the Asparagaceae family, and is native to parts of China, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and some Australian states. It is a tufted, rhizomatous, perennial herb, with narrow, flat leaves, umbels of 20 to 50 purple flowers with linear sepals, elliptic, fringed petals, six stamens and a straight style.
Thysanotus chinensis is a tufted perennial herb with a small rootstock and fibrous roots. It has 3 to 20, apparently annual, linear, flat to channelled leaves long and up to wide. The flowers are borne in umbels of 3 to 15 flowers on a spreading to low-lying scape long, each flower on a pedicel long. The flowers are purple, the perianth segments long. The sepals are linear to narrowly lance-shaped, about wide and the petals are egg-shaped to elliptic, about wide with a fringe about long. There are six stamens, the anthers of two different lengths, and the style is long.
Thysanotus chinensis was first formally described in 1861 by George Bentham in Flora Hongkongensis from specimens collected by Rudolph Krone in southern China. The specific epithet (chinensis) means 'from China'.
This species grows in open, grassy situations in forest, grassland, on the edges of depressions and along rivers, in a variety of soil types, in tropical northern regions of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland in Australia. It also occurs in New Guinea, southern China, Hong Kong, northern Vietnam, southern Thailand, northern Malay Peninsula, Luzon in the Philippines, and on Sulawesi, Flores and Aru Islands in Indonesia.
Thysanotus chinensis is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, and as of "least concern" under the Northern Territory Government Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act and the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.