Name:

Aspidistra hekouensis H.Li, C.L.Long & Bogner – Sendtnera 5: 15 (1998).

Holotype:

China, Yunnan, Hekou, dense forest, 240 m, 10.3.1996, Long & Yang 96705 (KU).

Specimens:

 

 

Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanic Garden, VI. 1995, flowering, Bogner 2216 (M).

Vietnam, Tuyen Quang province, Na Hang district, southern end of Khuon Ha village, 22° 26.918' N, 105° 18.978' E, altitude 410 m, 16 April 2017, B. Wynn-Jones BWJ15207 (MW0595671).

Distribution:

China: Yunnan.

Phenology:

Flowers in March–June in cultivation.

Description

from 

protologue:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evergreen perennial herb with creeping rhizome. Rhizome 6-7 cm long and 0.6-1.3 cm in diam., nodes 6-7, swollen, emerging unbranched cylindric roots. Leaves 2-4, closely set; cataphylls 3-4, enclosing the base of petiole, 2-8 cm long and ca. 2 cm wide, the latest cataphyll the longest, deep wine-red when young, getting brown soon and fibrous with age (old part of rhizome covered writh the fibres of cataphylls). Petiole 10-18 cm long, below 0.5-0.7 cm and above 0.4-0.5 cm in diam.. canaliculate, dark green. Leaf blade elliptic, coriaceous. 12-22 cm long and 8-12.5 cm wide, base attenuate to obtuse and decurrent at petiole, apex cuspidate; venation parallel-pinnate, middle vein very strong, 8-9 primary lateral veins on each side, ascending towards apex, margin entire, hyaline; blade dark green with pale green or yellowish, orbiculate spots of 2-3 mm in diam. Flowers solitary; pedicel 3-4 cm long and 2-3 mm in diam.; bracts 3, dark purple, coriaceous, ovate, 1.3-1.8 cm long and 0.5-1.5 cm wide, concave; perigone depressed-urceolate, basal part connate, 1.5-1.8 cm high and 1.8-2.3 cm in diam., mouth strongly constricted and opening 4-5 mm in diam.; blackish purple inside and outside, with numerous longitudinal grooves, outside slightly verrucose, inside smooth; free perigone lobes 6, coriaceous or fleshy when fresh, oblong, 5-6 mm long and 3 mm wide, reflexed, yellow above, dark purple beneath; stamens 6, inserted at the base of the perigone tube well below the stigma; filaments very short, outcurved, less than 1 mm long, yellow; anthers oblong, ca. 2.5 mm long, dehiscing by lateral slits; stigma peltate, very large, 1.5-1.8 cm in diam., dark purple, radiate-rugose on upper surface, sessile; ovary much thinner than stigma, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., 3-locular, one ovule per locule. Berries subglobose, ca. 1.2 cm high and ca. 1.5 cm in diam., yellowish green, with 12 longitudinal wings, these 1-2 mm wide, between the wings densely alate-verrucose, pericarp of berry 2-3 mm thick, 3-locular with one seed in each locule. Seed subglobose, ca. 7 mm in diam., white.

Sourses:

Li H. et al. (1998) – Sendtnera 5: 15–17.

Gallery: