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Aspidistra patentiloba

Accepted name Aspidistra patentiloba Y. Wan & X. H. Lu. Bull. Bot. Res., Harbin. 9(2): 99, fig. 2. (1989).
Synonyms  
Distribution China (C Guangxi)
Description Rhizome: creeping, subterete, diameter 0.8 - 1.5 cm.

Leaves: solitary to ca. 100 cm; cataphylls purple speckled; petiole 22 - 40 cm; leaf blade narrowly elliptic, 28 - 60 cm long x 6 - 13 cm wide.

Peduncle: 2.5 - 4 cm long, with ca. 7 bracts, pale green speckled purple; flowers solitary, short-lived (ca. 2 days), fragrance of apples with brown rot.

Perianth [Perigone]: campanulate; tube ca. 1 cm long x 2 - 2.5 cm diameter, glabrous, green speckled purple outside, dark purple inside; lobes 8 (- 10), recurved, linear-lanceolate, ca. 2.5 - 3 cm long x 0.5 cm wide, basally expanded inward forming tooth-like or spur-like appendages, yellow with purple margins adaxially, yellow heavily spotted with purple abaxially especially towards base.

Stamens: 8, inserted at middle of perianth tube, subsessile; anthers ovate, ca. 3.5 mm.

Pistil: disc-like; stigma ± sessile, a massive, dilated, structure ca. 1 cm long x 2 - 2.5 cm diameter, abaxially pale yellow with a dark purple margin, sides convex but base ± flat, with ca. 20 - 24 radial ridges, adaxially pale yellow with a dark purple margin, edge slightly concave, with a flat-topped 4 (- 5) lobed raised, area centrally [the true stigmatic surface?] the lobes tessellating with the spur-like appendages of the perigone lobes, the margin with ca. 10 - 12 major lobes alternating with 10 - 12 minor lobes representing the tips of the abaxial ridges, the whole ± filling the perigone tube and closely appressed to the opening ± closing it; ovary inconspicuous.

Fruit: berry purple, subglobose, 1.4–1.7 cm in diameter, softly prickly.

Phenology: flowers April -  June, fruits in June.

2n = 38

based on FoC and Li Guangzhao 2004 but mainly personal observations [see notes]

References  
Comments The plant I am growing as A. patentiloba does not closely match the drawings below or the photographs in Li Guangzhao 2004.  In the drawings and photographs the "stigma" is obconical and does not fill and is not appressed to the opening of the perigone tube.  In my plants the "stigma" is disc-like and is closely appressed to the opening of the perianth tube.  The details of the adaxial surface of the stigma also do not match.  A comparison of the stigma surfaces is here.

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last updated 18/02/2008