aSPIDISTRA sPECIES

Aspidistra deflexa

Name:

Aspidistra deflexa Aver., Tillich & V.T.Pham – Nordic J. Bot. 36(7)-e01833: 2. (2018).

Holotype:

 

 

 

Vietnam, 17 Oct 2017, L. Averyanov, T. Maisak, AL 288 (holotype: LE!, isotype: LE), specimen prepared from a plant collected in Khanh Hoa province, Khanh Ving district, primary and secondary shady evergreen broadleaved submontane forest, around point 12°14´21.0´´N, 108°46´11.4´´E, at 850 m a.s.l., terrestrial rhizomatous herb, with leaves to 50 cm tall, flower red-purple with white stigma, not common, 14 Oct 2017, Pham Van The, Truong Quang Cuong, Nguyen Thi Lien Thuong, PVT-KH01.

Distribution:

Vietnam: Khanh Hoa province.

Phenology:

Flowers in September–October in nature.

Description

from 

protologue:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Terrestrial perennial herb with hypogeous simple or fewbranching, creeping stout rhizome (15)20–40(50) cm long bearing many dull yellowish-gray wiry rigid roots; rhizome consisting of (4)5–8(12) sympodial plagiotropic segments, each (1.2)1.5–2.5(3.0) cm long, (0.6)0.8–1.2(1.4) cm in diameter, naked when old, showing (6)7–12(14) annular rings; young rhizome segments sparsely covered by dull pale yellowish fibrous remains of cataphylls, apical (4)5–8(10) segments terminated by erect, strongly abbreviated elementary shoots 4–6 mm tall, bearing several cataphylls and one erect leaf. Cataphylls during anthesis herbaceous, green to purple-violet, convolute, straight, upright, enveloping leaf petiole, (2)3–15(18) cm long, (1.2)1.6–2.2(2.8) cm wide (being flattened), somewhat broadening at base. Leaves, petiolate; petiole grassy green, stiff, rigid, erect, straight, (22)25–40(45) cm long, (2.5)3.0–3.5(4.0) mm in diameter, adaxially grooved; leaf blade suberect to arching, leathery, more or less flat, elliptic, tapering to acute apex and cuneate base, (30)35–45(50) cm long, (8)10–12(14) cm wide, straight or slightly irregularly wavy along margin, uniformly dark grassy green or with sparse dull yellowish spots, with prominent median vein and numerous, rather indistinct secondary veins. Flowers 1–2, arising laterally from leafy part of stem in apical rhizome segment, pedunculate, erect, at early stage of anthesis widely opening, (6.0)6.5–7.5(8.0) cm in diameter, later with perigone lobes strongly down deflexed. Peduncle oblique to erect, (5)6–8(9) cm long, (3.5)4.0–4.5(5.0) mm in diameter, purple, with 3–4(5) distant, sterile bracts; sterile bracts dull purple, sometimes speckled with white toward the base, broadly ovate, rounded and shortly apiculate at apex, herbaceous, with broad tubular base, enveloping peduncle, (0.9)1.1–1.3(1.4) cm long, (0.9)1.0–1.2(1.4) cm wide (when flattened out). Perigone with 10 free lobes, bright purple, fleshy, smooth and glossy; syntepalous part almost flat, light purple. Perigone lobes subequal, fleshy, recurved to sharply deflexed, slightly longitudinally convex, with incurved margin, narrowly triangular, (1.6)1.8–2.0(2.2) cm long, (0.6)0.7–0.8(0.9) cm wide, obtuse at apex. Stamens 10; anthers sessile, placed at the base of syntepalous part of perigone, quite near the base of ovary; anthers almost flat, sank into the fleshy perigone, (3.8)4.2–4.5(4.7) mm long, (2.0)2.2–2.8(3.0) mm wide, well distant from each other; pollen sacs opening upwards; pollen bright yellow. Pistil pure white, mushroomshaped; style fleshy, shortly cylindrical (3.2)3.4–3.6(3.8) mm tall, (6.8)7.0–7.5(7.8) mm in diameter at base, broadening toward apex; stigma slightly convex to almost hemispheric, fleshy, (6.5)7.0–8.0(8.5) mm tall, (2.2)2.4–2.6(2.8) cm in diameter, almost circular in outline (or hardly obscurely pentagonal), with 5 obscure strongly recurved lobes, weakly irregularly crenulate along margin, glossy smooth or with few indistinct irregular radial fissures above, with many distinct radial ribs beneath. Ovary inconspicuous, very indistinct, white. Fruits unknown.

Sourses:

Averyanov et al. (2018) – Nordic Journal of Botany: e01833

Gallery: