aSPIDISTRA sPECIES

Aspidistra truongii

Name:

Aspidistra truongii Aver. & Tillich – Taiwania 58(2): 108. (2013).

Holotype:

 

 

Southern Vietnam (“Khanh Hoa Prov., Khanh Vinh Distr., Hon Ba nature reserve, Hon Ba Peak. On fertile and well drained soil, under evergreen broad-leaved forest at elevation about 1500 m a.s.l. around point 12°06’59’’N 108°56’37’’E”. (“12 May 2011, Jacinto Regalado, Luu Hong Truong, Tran Gioi, JR 1888”) – LE (holotype), SING (isotype).

Distribution:

Vietnam: Khanh Hoa province.

Phenology:

Flowers in April–June in nature.

Description

from 

protologue:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rhizome terete, epigeous, creeping and ascending, occasionally branching, 4–6 mm in diam., densely nodal, with numerous thick rigid, semi woody, straight roots. Cataphylls convolute, cuneate, young dull reddishbrown, later light yellowish-gray, papyraceous, to 6 cm long, early dissecting into fibrous remains. Leaves distant on rhizome on 1–2(3) cm, petiolate. Petiole stiff, erect, straight, 30–40 cm long. Leaf blade arching to almost horizontal, narrowly elliptic, attenuate at base and apex, 15–22 cm long, 3–5 cm wide, uniformly grass green above and below, with prominent midvein on lower surface and 2–3(4) conspicuous secondary veins well visible at both sides. Flowers solitary or arising by 2–3(4) per rhizome apex, pedunculate, widely opening. Peduncle kept in horizontal position and nodding at apex, red-brown to dark purple-brown, 2–4(5) cm long, 1.5–2 mm in diam., with (2)3–4(5) bracts; bracts broadly ovate triangular, concave, fleshy, later thin, papyraceous, dirty reddish brown to dark purple-brown and almost purple-black, obtuse, (4)6–8(10) mm long, 4–6 mm wide. Floral bracts purple-brownish, 2–4, broadly triangular-ovate, concave, 5–8(10) mm long and wide, densely crowded at the apex of peduncle and adpressed to perigone from below. Perigone shallowly bowl shaped to almost flat, nutant, 2.5–3.5 cm in diam., of 4–5 mm depth, with 6 lobes, reddish-brown, dark purple-brown to nearly purplish-black on both sides. Lobes subequal, broadly triangular-ovate, flat, obtuse to blunt at apex, fleshy, smooth outside, finely rugose inside, straight or slightly reflexed, 6–8(10) mm long and wide. Stamens 6; inserted near perigone base, anthers sessile, slightly flattened, bean-shaped, 2 mm long, 1.8 mm wide, pollen sacs laterally facing; pollen brightly yellow. Pistil mushroom-shaped, peltate; ovary inconspicuous; style stout, white, cylindrical, 2–3 mm tall, 2.5–3 mm in diam.; stigma fleshy, discoid-hemispherical, finely purple mottled along the revolute margin, shallowly 3 lobed (with notched lobes), 10–14 mm in diam., upper surface of stigma finely verrucose. Fruit spherical, light brown to almost black, dry rigid berry 1.4–2 cm in diam., its surface rugose, tuberculate to thorny.

Sourses:

Averyanov and Tillich (2013) – Taiwania, 58(2): 108–111.

Gallery: