Tên Khoa học: Aspidistra multiflora Aver. et Tillich
Tên tiếng Anh:
Tên tiếng Việt: Tỏi đá nhiều hoa
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Rhizome terete, ascending or erect, sparsely branching, 8(10) mm in diameter, densely nodal, with thick rigid, light gray, semi-woody, straight stilt roots. Cataphylls convolute, cuneate, greenish when young, later light dull gray-brownish, papyraceous, to 10 cm long and 1 cm wide, early splitting into irregular fibres, enveloping petioles by fibrous-papyraceous remains. Leaves 1-3, petiolate. Petiole stiff, erect, straight, or slightly curved, (14)15-25(27) cm long. Leaf blade upright and arching, elliptic, attenuate at base and apex, (20)25-30(35) cm long, (4)5-8(10) cm wide, plicate, uniformly dull green above and below, with promi¬nent midvein and 3-5 secondary veins well seen on both sides, arising from midvein in basal half of leaf blade. Flow¬ers odorless, numerous, pedunculate, kept in horizontal or slightly ascending position, widely open. Peduncles appearing in groups just below the foliage leaves, dirty purple to olive brown, (6)8-12(14) mm long, 1 mm in diameter, horizontal to obliquely ascending, with 2-3 bracts; bracts triangular ovate, concave, papyraceous, with scarious, lacer¬ate margins, dirty purple to olive greenish, acute to obtuse, (3)4-6(7) mm long and 2-4 mm wide. Perigone tube urceo- late, 7.0-8.5(9.5) mm long and wide, glossy, white on both surfaces, inside with 6 longitudinal dark purple-brown stripes (reaching to between the stamens), with 6 lobes. Perigone lobes subequal, broadly triangular ovate, slightly convex, blunt to almost round at apex, fleshy, smooth, revolute, 4—5 mm long and wide, adaxial surface smooth or shal¬lowly longitudinally grooved, glossy dark purple—brown, abaxial surface white speckled with dirty purple. Stamens 6, inserted at middle part of tube; filaments short, later¬ally flattened, 0.6—0.8 mm tall, base 1.6—1.8 mm long; anthers bean-shaped, 2.0—2.2 mm long, 0.8—1.2(1.4) mm wide, with pollen sacs facing the style and narrow connec¬tive; pollen brightly yellow. Pistil mushroom-shaped, white; ovary inconspicuous, dirty purple speckled; style stout, white, cylindrical, slightly broadening to the base and apex, (3.0)4.0-5.0(5.5) mm tall, (1.0)1.2—1.4(1.6) mm in diam¬eter; stigma almost hemispherical, fleshy, almost white, sub¬circular or indistinctly hexagonal, (4.0)4.5—5.0(5.5) mm in diameter, its upper surface smooth. Fruits oblique-globular, (6)7-9(11) mm in diameter, dirty gray-brown to dull black, densely irregularly thorned, 1-seeded.

Distribution

Northern Vietnam (Thanh Hoa province, Thuong Xuan district). Endemic.

Ecology

Very steep shady slopes in primary and secondary evergreen broad-leaved lowland forest on sandstone hills at elevations of300-500 m a.s.l., Flowering in October-November, fruits in September-December. The species is considered to be of ‘Least Concern’ (LC) (IUCN 2012).

Similar species

The species is closest to A. zinaidae Aver. et Tillich (2012), but distinctly differs in its tube diameter 7-9 mm (not 4-5 mm), tube inside glossy white (not deep purple), lobes revo¬lute (not erect), and leaf blades elliptic and 5-8 cm wide (not lanceolate and 2 - 5 cm wide).