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Aspidistra zongbayi

Accepted name Aspidistra zongbayi K. Y. Lang & Z. Y. Zhu. Acta Phytotax. Sin., 20(4): 486, fig. 1. (1982).
Synonyms  
Distribution China (Sichuan)
Description Rhizome: creeping, terete, diameter 3 - 5 mm.

Leaves: solitary to ca. 50 cm (though usually much smaller); cataphylls undescribed; petiole 5 - 25 cm, stiff; lamina with yellowish white spots and sometimes yellowish longitudinal lines, basally elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, 14 - 25 cm long x 3 - 7 cm wide.

Peduncle: 2 - 3 cm long with 1 - 2 bracts; flowers solitary.

Perianth [Perigone]: campanulate, purple-red; tube 5 - 7 mm long x 8 - 11 (- 13) mm diameter; lobes 6, recurved, deltoid-ovate, 4 - 5 mm long x 2 - 4 mm wide, adaxially with 4 fleshy, papillose/carneous keels.

Stamens: 6, inserted proximally in perianth tube, subsessile; anthers ovate.

Pistil: table-shaped, 4 - 5 mm long; style ± cylindrical, stigma yellowish white abaxially, purple adaxially except for (usually) whitish hollows, peltate, orbicular, ca. 9 mm in diameter, 3-lobed the lobes emarginate giving 6 marginal lobes each with a (usually) white hollow adaxially; ovary conoid.

Fruit: berry ellipsoid-ovoid, 1 - 1.3 cm in diameter, tuberculate.

Phenology: flowers January - February, fruits August - December.

2n = 38

based on FoC, Tillich 2005 and personal observations.

References  
Comments There are at least two forms in cultivation:

A. zongbayi 'Uan Fat Lady' is Crûg Farm introduction from the now defunct Watanabi Brothers nursery in Kuroishi, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. The cultivar name 'Uan Fat Lady' was given to it by Bleddyn Wynn-Jones although I think it may be known in Japan as Hime-Shima-Haran or "little striped Aspidistra".  Crûg Farm list this plant as "aff. saxicola".  [According to Todd Rounsaville at Plant Delights this is probably the same clone as the plant sold as Aspidistra typica 'Yunnan Sunbeam'.]

A. zongbayi collected by Edward Needham is a smaller plant than 'Uan Fat Lady'.  The foliage is spotted but lacks the central stripes.

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last updated 15/10/2008