Name:

Aspidistra vietnamensis (Aver. & Tillich) Aver. & Tillich – Nordic J. Bot. 36(7)-e01833: 16. (2018)

Basionym:

Aspidistra elatior Blume var. vietnamensis Averyanov & Tillich

Holotype:

From a plant flowering under cultivation 10 Jul 2011, collected in central Vietnam, Quang Nam province, Dong Giang district, Ma Cooih municipality around point 15°58’11”N, 107°40’15”E, 9 Jan 2009, L. Averyanov, P.K. Loc, P.V. The, N.T. Vinh, HAL 12116aa) (holotype LE).

Specimens:

Pingfa Township, Guiding Country, Guizhou Province, China, 3 October. 2008, S.Z. He et al. 081008 (GZTM).

Distribution:

Vietnam: Quang Nam province.

Phenology:

Flowers in June–July in cultivation.

Description

from 

protologue:

Rhizome terete, epigeous to hypogeous, creeping to ascending, branching, 1.5-2 cm in diam., densely nodal. Cataphylls convolute, dull reddishbrown, up to 10 cm long. Leaves solitary, petiolate. Petiole stiff, erect, to 20 cm long. Leaf blade upright to horizontal, lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, attenuate at base and apex, 20–30 cm long, (2.5)3–6 cm wide, dark green, commonly with numerous small irregular yellowish spots, plicate, with prominent midvein on lower surface and 1–3 inconspicuous secondary veins at both sides. Flowers odorless, solitary, subsessile to pedunculate. Peduncle greenish to almost white, (2)3–6(10) mm long, 1.5–2 mm in diam., with 3 bracts; bracts broadly ovate, papyraceous, white to dull dirty purple, obtuse, 6–10 mm long and wide. Perigone cup-shaped to shallowly urceolate, 2.5–3 cm in diam., of 8 lobes, tube broad, 8–10 mm long, 10–15 mm in diam., outside glossy, reddish-purple, inside dark purple-violet. Lobes triangular-cuneate, acute to obtuse, fleshy, rugose or finely warty, reflexed, dull reddish-pink to yellowish, 6–8 mm long, 3–5 mm wide, with 2–3 ridge-like prominent keels and 2 deep longitudinal grooves toward the base. Stamens 8; anthers sessile to subsessile, ovoid, 1.5–2 mm in diam., inserted at lower quarter of tube, horizontally spreading, pollen sacs oriented downwards; pollen yellow-white. Pistil mushroom-shaped, peltate; ovary inconspicuous; style stout, white, shortly cylindrical, 4–5 mm tall, 2.5–3 mm in diam.; stigma fleshy, shortly obpyramidal, white below, indistinctly 4(8) lobed, 8–10 mm in diam., upper surface dirty purple-violet, stigma lobes irregularly folded forming prominent radial ridges and deep grooves.

Sourses:

Averyanov & Tillich (2012) – Turczaninowia, 15 (1): 5–10; Averyanov et al. (2018) – Nordic Journal of Botany, e01833.

Gallery: