Name:

Aspidistra depingiana Y.H.Tan & H.B.Ding, Taiwania 66(4): 439 (2021).

Holotype:

 

China. Yunnan: Jinghong, Damenglong, Mengsong Village, 24°10′19″ N, 102°05′35″ E, elevation ca. 1670 m, 3 October 2012, Yun-Hong Tan 5369 (HITBC).

Specimens:

 

 

China. Yunnan Province: Puer, Zhenyuan, Enle, Dapingzhang Village, Near Diema River, 23°55′45″N, 100°58′59″E, elevation ca. 1639 m, 8 October 2019, D.P. Ye T0404 (HITBC0030038, HITBC0030039); Puer, Jingdong, Huashan, Podou Village, Hudong, 24°10′19″N, 101°07′37″E, elevation ca. 1603 m, 17 September 2018, D.P. Ye T0462 (HITBC0030044, TAI).

Distribution:

China: Yunnan.

Phenology:

Flowering in September–November, fruiting in June–August.

Description

from 

protologue:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Herbs perennial, evergreen, rhizomatous, completely glabrous, 40–80 cm tall. Rhizome creeping, subterete, 3–5 mm thick, covered by fibrous bract remains, with many grey roots. Cataphylls convolute, cuneate, as young white at the base, light green toward apex, later becoming dull light brownish, to 13 cm long, early splitting into irregular fibres, enveloping 1–4 petioles by fibrous-papyraceous remains. Foliage leaves 2–3(4) tufted or sometimes solitary, not easy divided into petiole and lamina, leaf gradually narrowing to base, leaf base (pseudo-petiole) stiffly erect, dark to light green, adaxially sulcate, 2–25 cm long; leaf blade dark to light green, without spots, linear, 25–62 cm long, 0.8–2.0 cm wide, margin entire, midvein protruding abaxially and sunken adaxially, with 2–3 secondary veins at each sides of the midvein, apex attenuate, base cuneate. Peduncle (specialized reproductive shoot) decumbent, creamy white, 2–13 cm long, with several widely ovate bracts, bracts gradually wider from base to top of peduncle, the 2 uppermost at base of perigone broadly ovate, creamy white with purple-red spots, ca. 1.0 × 0.8 cm, obtuse at apex. Flower solitary at top of peduncle. Perigone campanulate, fleshy, 12–15 mm long, 10–12 mm in diameter; perigone tube 6–8 mm long, ca. 1 mm thick, outside creamy white and with scattered purple-red spots at apex, smooth, inside creamy white with purple-red spots gradually turning completely purple-red towards apex; perigone lobes 6, subequal, ovate-triangular, 5–8 mm long, 3–5 mm broad at base, apex tapering into acute and usually recurved, adaxially densely papillose and scabrous, with purple-red spots or completely purple-red, each lobes with 2 conspicuous keels, abaxially smooth and creamy white with scattered purple-red spots. Stamens 6, inserted at the bottom of perigone tube, inserted lower than stigma; filaments creamy white, cylindrical, ca. 1 mm long; anthers yellow, ca. 2 mm long, ca. 1 mm wide, introrse. Pistil mushroom-shaped, 6–8 mm high; style creamy white, cylindrical, 5–6 mm long; stigma peltate swelled, 7–10 mm in diameter, central convex, finely papillose, 3-lobed at margin, lobes emarginate at apex, purple-red, upper surface of stigma with 3 white radial dichotomously forking at a half way, sometimes becoming faintly grooves at upper half way. Ovary inconspicuous, superior. Fruits green to greenish yellow or purplish red, globular, or slightly oblate, 2.7– 3.8 cm in diam., with irregularly warty or prickly on the surface, 1–4-seeded.

Sourses:

Ding et al. (2021) – Taiwania 66(4): 439‒449.

Gallery: