Name:

Aspidistra obconica C.R.Lin & Yan Liu – Bot. Stud. (Taipei) 51(2): 263. (2010).

Holotype:

China: Guangxi Zhuangzu Autonomous Region, Daxin Xian (County), Encheng Zhen (Township), alt. 320 m, in a valley on limestone hill, 27 May 2004, Yan Liu L0960 (holotype: IBK; isotype: HAST).

Specimens:

China: Guangxi Zhuangzu Autonomous Region, Guilin City, Yanshan (Township), introduced by Yan Liu from the type locality, cultivated, 20 May 2009, Chun-Rui Lin 018 (IBK).

Distribution:

China: Guangxi.

Phenology:

Flowers in May–June in nature.

Description

from 

protologue:

Herbs perennial, evergreen, rhizomatous. Rhizome creeping, subterete, 8-10 mm thick, covered with scales, nodes dense. Cataphylls 5 or 6, purplish red, 1-11 cm long, enveloping base of petiole, becoming blackish brown when dry. Cauline leaves ca. 5 mm apart; petiole stiffly upright, 9-15 cm long, 2-3 mm thick, adaxially sulcate; leaf blade usually narrowly elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, 15-23 cm long, 4.5-7.5 cm wide, dark green with small yellowish white spots on both surfaces, base cuneate, gradually narrowing into a petiole, inequilateral, margin entire, apex acuminate. Peduncle decumbent or declining, purplish red, 1.5-3.5 cm long, with 5 or 6 bracts, bracts gradually wider from base to apex of peduncle, basalmost bract broadly ovate-cucullate, purplish red, 7-10 mm long, 8-10 mm wide, apex subobtuse. Inflorescence a solitary flower; perianth obconic-campanulate, 1.4-1.6 cm long, fleshy, 6-lobed apically; lobes whitish, densely purplish mottled, usually incurved, ovate-triangular, apex rounded, distinctly 2-whorled, lobes of outer whorl 3-4 mm long, 4-5 mm wide, those of the inner whorl smaller; tube 1.1-1.3 cm long, distal opening 8-10 mm in diam., white or sometimes speckled with purple; stamens 6, inserted on upper mid part of perianth tube, anthers sessile, linear, pale yellow, ca. 4 mm long, distally reaching or just below level of stigma; pistil obconic, purple, 1-1.2 cm long, ovary inconspicuous, style distally gradually widened to stigma, stigma subrotund, 5-6 mm in diam., surface flat, with 3 fine radial grooves from center to margin, shallowly 3-lobed, with 3 radial, whitish, inconspicuous bifurcate lines in center.

Sourses:

Lin et al. (2010) – Botanical Studies 51: 263–268; Lin et al. (2013) – Nordic Journal of Botany 30: 1–4.

Gallery: