Researchers have discovered a new species of Aspidistra (Asparagaceae) in central Laos. The new species, named Aspidistra khamkheuthensis, was identified by researchers from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences following a series of field surveys in Bolikhamsai Province and neighboring areas.

The findings, together with a newly documented national record of another Aspidistra species, were published in Phytotaxa on May 14.

The Aspidistra genus is native to southern China and Southeast Asia and currently comprises about 245 accepted species. Over the past three decades, the number of recognized Aspidistra species has increased rapidly in China and Vietnam. However, it is only in the past decade that the number has begun to increase significantly in Laos, with 12 species recorded prior to this study.

During a survey in Khamkheuth District, the researchers encountered a previously unknown plant with a distinctive stigma structure. Subsequent detailed morphological analyses confirmed that it represented a species new to science.

They named the new species after the type locality, Khamkheuth District. It is morphologically similar to Aspidistra attenuata in the shape and size of the perigone tube and lobes, but differs from the latter in its leaf blade shape and length, perigone color, stamen position, anther shape, pistil shape and size, as well as stigma shape and color.

Aspidistra khamkheuthensis produces dramatic, fleshy flowers with perigones ranging from dark red and reddish-purple to nearly blackish-purple. The flowers are solitary, borne on short peduncles, and feature 8(–9) revolute lobes with longitudinal ridges. The most distinctive feature is the table-shaped pistil, which stands 5–6 mm tall. The stigma is subrotund, with 8–10 lobed margins, bright pink in the center, transitioning to blackish-purple at the lobes and margin.

Aspidistra khamkheuthensis is currently known only from a single population of fewer than 200 mature individuals. It grows at the edge of a national park near farmland and is therefore vulnerable to human activities. The researchers thus assessed its conservation status as critically endangered (CR) based on the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria.

In addition to describing this new species, the researchers also reported Aspidistra multiflora as a new record for the flora of Laos. Previously known only from Thanh Hoa Province in Vietnam, this species was found growing in a broad-leaved evergreen forest at around 197 m elevation in Phou Hin Poun National Park in Bolikhamsai Province.

Aspidistra khamkheuthensis (Image by XI Houcheng)

Aspidistra khamkheuthensis (Image by XI Houcheng)

Aspidistra multiflora (Image by XI Houcheng)