蜘蛛抱蛋 Aspidistra elatior

  • Scientific Name: Aspidistra elatior
  • Ref: Blume, Tijdschr. Natuuri. Gesch. Physiol. 1: 76. 1834.
  • English Common Name: cast-iron-plant, bar room plant
  • Chinese Common Name: 蜘蛛抱蛋 zhīzhūbàodàn
  • Japanese Common Name: 葉蘭 (ハラン) haran
  • Family: Asparagaceae
  • Subfamily: Nolinoideae
  • Tribe: Convallarieae
  • Genus: Aspidistra
  • Distribution: Widely cultivated in China [native to Japan (Osumi Islands)].
Rhizome subterete, 5--10 mm thick. Leaves solitary, spaced; petiole 5--35 cm, stiff; leaf blade sometimes with yellowish white markings, oblong-lanceolate, lanceolate, or subelliptic, 20--45 × 6--10 cm. Scape 0.5--2 cm; bracts 2--4. Flower solitary. Perianth purplish to dark-purple, rarely pinkish, campanulate, (6--)8-lobed apically; tube 1--1.2 × 1--1.5 cm; lobes greenish at margin, deltoid, 6--8 × 3.5--4 mm, adaxially 4-keeled, keels purple-red, very thick, fleshy, smooth, central 2 up to 1.5 mm wide. Stamens (6--)8, inserted at base of perianth tube, subsessile; anthers elliptic, ca. 2 mm. Pistil ca. 8 mm; stigma peltate, orbicular, large, 1--1.3 cm in diam., 4-lobed at margin, lobes emarginate at apex. Fl. Jan--Apr. 2 n = 36*. (Flora of China)

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