Name:

Aspidistra parviflora N.S.Lý & Tillich – Phytotaxa 282(1): 56. (2016).

Synonyms:

Aspidistra parviflora is currently a synonym of Aspidistra paucitepala Vislobokov, Nuraliev & D.D.Sokoloff

Holotype:

 

Vietnam: Quảng Ngãi province: Nghĩa Hành district, Hành Tín Đông commune, Trường Lệ village, Mount Dầu, Nhự hill, 14°51′56″N, 108°41′11″E, 463 m, 6 May 2016, Lý Ngọc Sâm, Lý-738 (holotype VNM, including flowers and fruit in liquid collection; isotype P)

Specimens:

 

Vietnam: Quảng Ngãi province: Nghĩa Hành district, Hành Tín Đông commune, Trường Lệ village, Mount Dầu, Nhự hill, 14°52′07″N, 108°48′11″E, 383 m, 6 May 2016, Lý Ngọc Sâm Lý-736 (VNM, P); ibidem, Lý Ngọc Sâm, Lý-737 (VNM).

Distribution:

Vietnam: Quang Ngai province.

Phenology:

Flowers in May in nature.

Description

from 

protologue:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perennial rhizomatous herbs up to 50 cm tall. Rhizome branched, epigeous, ascending to vertical, supported by many thick, rigid, grey or brownish-grey, straight to slightly curved stilt roots, up to 20 cm long by 2–3 mm diam. before entering the soil and then freely branching, covered with cataphylls, nodes densely, 4.5–6 × 4–9.5 mm, brownish. Cataphylls numerous, up to 11.7 × 2.5 cm, lower ones very short triangular-ovate at base, inner ones oblong, apex acute with a short teeth, young brown-purple, light greenish at base, later fibrously decaying. Leaves solitary, 0.5–1.5 cm apart, crowded. Petiole stiff, upright, 6–15 cm long, 2.2–3 mm in diameter, green, ventrally deeply canaliculated, yellowish-green at base, basal 6.2–10 mm swollen; Lamina obovate-elliptic, uniformly green, slightly unequal, 24.5– 38.7 cm long, 4.8–9.5 cm at widest point, basally gradually tapering into petiole, apex short acuminate, adaxially green, semi-glossy, abaxially lighter green, mid vein strongly prominent at lower surface, each half of lamina with 4–5(–6) stronger secondary veins, between them 4–7(–8) fine tertiary nerves with numerous anastomoses, margins serrulate. Peduncle stout, obliquely upright to horizontal, 9–13.5 mm long, 1.2–1.8 mm diam., whitish to purplish-white tinged, with 4–5 small scale leaves up to 7 mm long, basally with 2–3 smaller triangular scales, distally with 2 larger triangularovate scales adjacent to flower, externally purplish at base, blackish-purple towards apex, glabrous, internally purplishwhite tinged, margins translucent whitish, papery, apex very shallowly 3-lobed, middle-lobe obtuse or mucronate with a short mucro ca. 0.3 mm long. Flowers solitary, several at a time, obliquely upright to horizontal, with inconspicuous fragrance. Perigone tube narrowly funnel-shaped to slightly urceolate, 7.8–10.5 mm long, 4.5–5.3 mm in diameter, externally mainly white, but purple at upper third, smooth and semi-glossy, inconspicuously verrucose near the apex, internally black-purple, whitish near the base; lobes (3–)4, curved slightly outward to straight erect, ovate, apex obtuse, with an inconspicuous blunt tooth, fleshy, black purple at both sides, 2.5–3.5 mm long, 2.5–3.8 mm at widest point; tube wall and lobes ca. 0.5 mm thick. Stamens 4 (in the same number as perianth lobes), inserted at the middle of the perigone tube, arranged at the same radii with lobes; anthers subsessile, linear, white with yellowish-cream thecae, 2.2–3.2 mm long, 0.7–0.8 mm wide at the base, latrorse; connective narrowly ovate, without a connective appendage but with apically extended thecae; pollen cream. Pistil cylindrical, white, 2.5–2.8 mm tall, 0.5–0.7 mm wide at the base. Stigma not wider than style, obscurely lobed, glabrous, clearly below insertion level of stamens. Ovary superior, 0.5–0.7 mm, unilocular. Fruiting peduncles ca. 9 mm long, ca. 2 mm in diameter, green; Immature fruits pale purplish or greenish, spherical, with short conical protuberances, ca. 8 mm diam.; 1–seeded, globose, ca. 6 mm in diameter.

Sourses:

Ly & Tillich (2016) – Phytotaxa 282 (1): 53–60; Tillich & Averyanov (2018) – Feddes Repertorium 29(3): 185–188.

Gallery: