Name:

Aspidistra nikitensis Kalyuzhny & Vislobokov, Phytotaxa 574(4): 290 (2022).

Holotype:

 

 

Vietnam, Gia Lai province, K’Bang district, Kon Chu Rang Nature Reserve, primary evergreen broad-leaved forest, around point 14º30’09.0’’ N, 108º34’10.7’’ E, elevation 1040 m a.s.l., not common, 1 March 2021, S. Kalyuzhny Ktg 25-21/194-21, the herbarium specimen prepared from the living cultivated plant by S. Kalyuzhny (holotype YALT).

Specimens:

 

Plants cultivated in The Nikitsky Botanical Gardens RAS (accession number: Ktg 25-21/194-21) and in Botanical Garden of Irkutsk State University (accession numbers: Ktg 8-21/174-21; Ktg13- 21/180-21), Russia.

Distribution:

Vietnam: Gia Lai province.

Phenology:

Flowering in April in nature.

Description

from 

protologue:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plant perennial, evergreen, herbaceous, rhizomatous, glabrous. Rhizome terete, epigeous to hypogeous, creeping to ascending, branching, 2.5–3.4 cm in diam., densely nodal. Roots grey or greenish, 2–3.3 mm in diam., with dense hairs persistent up to root base. Rhizomes with regularly repeating units, each comprising distichously arranged phylloms: a few cataphylls followed by 3–5 foliage leaves. Cataphylls dull reddish-brown, oblong, 15.5–19.2 cm long, 1.8–2.5 cm wide. Leaves not divided into petiole and lamina. Leaf dark to light green, linear, distally narrowly acuminate, gradually narrowing towards base, 78–105 cm long, 2.1–3.2 cm wide, with finely serrate margin, with prominent midvein on lower surface and 2–3 inconspicuous secondary veins at both sides. Leaf base stiff, erect, adaxially sulcate, 3.7–4.5 mm wide. Peduncle (specialized reproductive shoot) pale green with purple spots, 2.3–4.8 cm long, 1.9–3.1 mm in diam., curved at top so that perigone mouth directed horizontally to the surface, with 3–5 distichously arranged widely ovate acuminate scale purple spotted leaves 8.2–12 mm long, 4–7.2 mm wide. Flowers odorless, solitary at top of peduncle, located at soil level. Perigone completely darkish-burgundy, campanulate, 3.1–3.9 cm long, 2.4–3.6 cm in diam.; tube 12–20 mm long, 7.2–13 mm in diam.; lobes 6, triangular-ovate, slightly acuminate, 11–19 mm long, 3.7–7.2 mm wide, basally with 2 prominent longitudinal keels. Stamens 6, in the same number as perigone lobes, inserted at base of perigone tube, at radii of tepals; filaments basally purple, apically white, cylindrical, short, ca. 1 mm long; anthers subsessile, 2.8–3 mm long, 2.1–2.7 mm wide, introrse. Pistil mushroom-shaped, 7–9 mm long. Style white, cylindrical, 4.4–5 mm long, 3.7–4.2 mm in diam. Stigma darkish-burgundy above, white with purple spots along margin below, shallowly trilobate, up to 1.2 cm in diam., the upper surface convex with projections covered with sharp needle-like outgrowths, shallowly 3-lobed. Ovary inconspicuous, superior, 3-locular. Fruits unknown.

Sourses:

Kalyuzhny et al. (2022) – Phytotaxa 574 (4): 289–294.

Gallery: