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Aspidistra omeiensis

Accepted name Aspidistra omeiensis Z. Y. Zhu & J. L. Zhang. Acta Phytotax. Sin., 19(3): 386, fig. 1. (1981).
Synonyms  
Distribution China (Sichuan)
Description Rhizome: creeping, subterete, diameter 1 - 2 cm.

Leaves: 3 - 5-tufted to ca. 120 cm; cataphylls pale green, persistent eventually becoming scarious; petiole 5 - 13 cm; lamina lorate, 8 - 100 cm long x 2 - 4 cm wide.

Peduncle: 3 - 12 mm long with 3 - 4 bracts; flowers solitary.

Perianth [Perigone]: campanulate, off-white streaked with purple or purple-red outside, dark purple inside; tube 0.8 - 1.3 cm long x 1.2 - 2 cm diameter, walls ca. 2 mm thick, fleshy; lobes 6 (- 8) deltoid-ovate, 7 - 10 mm long x 4 - 9 mm wide, 4 (- 6)-keeled adaxially, keels fleshy, papillose, inner keels extending from middle or base of tube to apex of lobes.

Stamens: 6 (- 8), inserted proximally in perianth tube; filaments ca. 1 mm; anthers transversely elliptic.

Pistil: mushroom shaped; ca. 6 - 8 mm long; style basally ca. 5 mm diameter, faintly greenish, shortly columnar before widening to stigma level, stigma 0.9 - 1.3 cm in diameter, 3 (-4)-lobed, peltate, orbicular, exceeding anthers, adaxial surface purple with 3(-4) white ridges radiating from centre with recurved bifurcated tips in each lobe, abaxial surface off-white with purplish-blackish margins; ovary indistinct.

Fruit: undescribed.

Phenology: flowers March-April.

2n = 38

based on FoC, drawing in Li Guangzhao 2004 and personal observations.

References  
Comments In its foliage this is the most un-Aspidistra-like Aspidistra.  The light-green foliage is not at all leathery and I was convinced that my plant was a Tupistra until it flowered.


The flowers are not noticeably striped as suggested by the drawings.


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last updated 12/09/2008