Name:

Aspidistra zinaidae Aver. & Tillich – Turczaninowia 15(1): 8. (2012).

Holotype:

 

 

Vietnam, Thua Thien – Hue province, Nam Dong district, Thuong Lo municipality, Cha Mang river basin, around point 16°07’53’’N 107°43’27’’E. Primary evergreen broad- leaved lowland forest on very steep hill slopes composed with stratified shale at elev. 400–500 m a.s.l. Terrestrial herb on very steep rocky shady river slope. Common. 11 April 2007, L. Averyanov, N.S. Khang, A. Averyanova, N.D. Phuong, L.V. Hung, HAL 11111a.

Distribution:

Vietnam: Thua Thien – Hue province.

Phenology:

Flowering in November – December in cultivation.

Description

from 

protologue:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rhizome terete, epigeous, ascending to erect, much and densely branching, 4–8 mm in diam., densely nodal, with numerous thick rigid, semi woody, straight roots. Cataphylls convolute, cuneate, young dull reddish-brown, later light yellowish-brown, papyraceous, to 8 cm long and 1(1.4) cm wide. Leaves very dense, petiolate. Petiole stiff, erect, straight, (4)6–10(12) cm long. Leaf blade upright to almost horizontal, lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, attenuate at base and apex, (12)15–30(35) cm long, (1.5)2–5(6) cm wide, plicate, dark uniformly green above, light green below, with prominent midvein on lower surface and 1–5 inconspicuous secondary veins at both sides. Flowers odorless, numerous, pedunculate (rarely subsessile), kept in horizontal position, not widely opening. Peduncle purple-violet to almost white at apex, (2)5–30(40) mm long, 1–2 mm in diam., appearing in groups, kept horizontally to obliquely ascending, with 3–4 bracts; bracts broadly ovate to almost orbicular, concave, papyraceous, with scarious, lacerate margins, white to dull dirty purple, obtuse, 3–6 mm long and wide. Perigone shallowly urceolate, (6)8–10 mm in diam., of 6 lobes, tube broad, 4–6 mm long, 4–5 mm in diam., glossy white outside, deep purple inside. Lobes clearly in two circles, broadly triangularovate, slightly concave, obtuse to almost orbicular at apex, fleshy, smooth, straight or hardly reflexed, 4–6 mm long, 3–4 mm wide, upper surface smooth, dark dull brown-violet, outsides glossy white with a narrow dull-brown margin, lobes of inner whorl (petals) slightly smaller than outer lobes (sepals). Stamens 6; inserted at middle part of tube, anthers sessile to subsessile, bean-shaped, 2–3 mm long, about as long as wide, pollen sacs facing the style, embedded into an unusually broad, fleshy, white connective; pollen brightly yellow. Pistil mushroom- shaped, peltate; ovary inconspicuous; style stout, white, cylindrical, 2.5–3.5 mm tall, 1–1.5 mm in diam.; stigma fleshy, discoid to shortly obpyramidal, entirely white, indistinctly 3 lobed, 2.5–3.5 mm in diam., upper surface of stigma smooth to indistinctly verrucose.

Sourses:

Averyanov & Tillich (2012) – Turczaninowia 15(1): 5–10.

Gallery: