Name:

Aspidistra crassifila Yan Liu & C.I Peng – Bot. Stud. (Taipei) 54-43: 1. (2013).

Holotype:

China, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Fangcheng (City), Shiwandashan Mountains, alt. 980 m, 10 March 2005. Specimens pressed from plants introduced to Guilin Botanical Garden, Guilin City, Yanshan Township on 11 May 2006, Yan Liu L1380 (holotype: IBK; isotype: HAST)

Specimens:

China, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Fangcheng (City), Shiwandashan Mountains, alt. 980 m, 10 March 2005, Yan Liu L1156 (IBK); same locality, 17 January 2007, Yan Liu L1425 (IBK).

Distribution:

China: Guangxi.

Phenology:

Flowers in March–May in cultivation, fruits in May next year.

Description

from 

protologue:

Herbs perennial, evergreen, rhizomatous. Rhizome creeping, subterete, 8–13 mm thick, covered with scales, nodes dense. Vaginal leaves 4–5, 1–14 cm long, purple-red, enveloping base of petiole, fibrous when withered. Leaves solitary, 2–5 cm apart; petiole stiff, upright, 10–40 cm long, 3–5 mm thick, adaxially sulcate; leaf blade oblong-oblanceolate, 30–60 cm long, 6–12 cm wide, base cuneate, gradually narrowed into petiole, inequilateral, apex acuminate, margin entire. Peduncle purplish red to purplish black, 2.5–6 cm long, with 4–5 bracts, bracts gradually wider from base to top of peduncle; the uppermost bract broadly ovate, purplish red or purplish black, ca. 10 mm long, ca. 12 mm wide, apex subobtuse. Flowers solitary; perianth purplish black, fleshy, campanulate, 4–6 cm in diam., 8–12 lobed apically; lobes triangular-lanceolate, 15–25 mm long and 5–10 mm wide at base, apex gradually acuminate, horizontally spreading, with appendages at base, tube 8–12 mm long, distal opening 15–20 mm diam.; stamens as many as and opposite to lobes, 6–8 mm long, inserted in the middle of perianth tube, positioned lower than stigma, filaments purplish black, enlarged, 3–4 mm wide at side view, their upper surfaces visible from above (between adaxial surface of perianth tube and margin of stigma), anthers adnate to perianth, pale yellow, oblong, 5–6 mm long, ca. 2 mm wide, connectives extended and upcurved; pistil mushroom-shaped, 2 cm long, style cylindrical, ca. 10 mm long, ca. 4 mm across, purplish red, ovary inconspicuous, stigma enlarged, ca. 10 mm high, 12–15 mm across, upper surface white with purple spots, smooth, lower surface purplish black, irregularly concaved and undulate at margin. Berry subglobose, ca. 3.5 cm across, tuberculate.

Sourses:

Lin et al. (2013) – Botanical Studies, 54: 43.

Gallery: