Atropanthe (Chinese name 天蓬子 tian peng zi) is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to tribe Hyoscyameae of subfamily Solanoideae of the family Solanaceae.

Unlike Atropa, however (and in common with the other genera belonging to subtribe Hyoscyaminae of Hyoscyameae) Atropanthe bears a dry, pyxidial fruit, resembling a pot with a lid (Atropa, the sole member of subtribe Atropinae, bears, by contrast, a fruit taking the form of a juicy, glistening berry).

Calyx at flowering tubular-campanulate or somewhat urceolate, slightly inflated, somewhat bent, 15-veined, with 5 main veins, papery, glabrous, circa 2 cm; lobes subequal, deltate to rounded erose to ciliate, glabrescent.

Fruiting calyx hanging downward, the broad inflated base uppermost and the constricted but open mouth held below, conical, ovoid, or oblong, usually lantern-like/top-shaped, 2.5–3 cm in diameter, inserted abruptly on pedicel and easily detached from it after drying.

[2] Humid places (moist soils), along ditches, forests; at altitudes of 1400–3000 m.[2] Like all the other genera of the Solanaceous tribe Hyoscyameae (of which the best-known member is the infamous deadly nightshade[4]), the genus Atropanthe is rich in tropane alkaloids - compounds possessing anticholinergic properties which are therapeutically useful in small doses and dangerously hallucinogenic (deliriant) in larger ones.

[7][8] The Chinese vernacular name for A. sinensis, 天蓬子 has been transliterated into Latin script both as tiān péng zi and tien pung tzu.

[9] The name is composed of the individual characters 天 tiān "heaven"/"sky"/"day”[10] 蓬 péng "disheveled/flourishing/vigorous/forming clumps"[11] and 子 zi variously "son", "seed" and a nominalising suffix (indicating the conversion into a noun of another part of speech).

[16][17] A potential source of confusion in regard to the monotypic status of this Solanaceous genus is the existence of the binomial Atropanthe mairei (H.Lév.)