Peliosanthes multiflora Kroupsky, N.Tanaka & Nuraliev, 2025

Kroupsky, Ivan A., Lyskov, Dmitry F., Romanov, Mikhail S., Drokina, Victoria G., Dac, Le Xuan, Kuznetsov, Andrey N., Kuznetsova, Svetlana P., Nguyen, Khang Sinh, Tanaka, Noriyuki & Nuraliev, Maxim S., 2025, Peliosanthes multiflora (Asparagaceae), a small-flowered new species from Vietnam, Phytotaxa 696 (1), pp. 83-92 : 84-88

Peliosanthes multiflora Kroupsky, N.Tanaka & Nuraliev , sp. nov. ( Figs 1–4 )

Diagnosis: — Peliosanthes multiflora differs from all the other known species of the genus in a combination of two traits, i.e. the narrowly elliptic to linear leaf blades (that are up to 19 mm wide) and strongly reflexed to recurved perianth lobes. The inflorescences of P. multiflora also make it distinct from most of its congeners, as they strongly exceed the leaves and bear up to 100 flowers. The new species is additionally remarkable in having relatively small fully open flowers (2.5–2.9 mm in diameter) and perianth lobes (2.3–2.5 mm long).

Type: — VIETNAM. Phu Yen Province: Song Hinh District, Song Hinh Municipality, Song Hinh Protected Forest, in the forest, 12°48’17’’N 109°00’54’’E, elev. 260 m, 10 January 2021, Nuraliev M. S., Lyskov D. F., Kuznetsov A. N., Kuznetsova S. P. NUR 3082 (holotype MW: MW 0595855!).

Additional specimens examined (paratypes): — VIETNAM. Phu Yen Province: Song Hinh District, Song Hinh Municipality, Song Hinh Protected Forest , in the forest, 12°48’35’’N 109°00’41’’E, elev. 240 m, 10 January 2021, Nuraliev M. S., Lyskov D. F., Kuznetsov A. N., Kuznetsova S. P. NUR 3080 ( MW: MW0595856 ) ; same gathering, the herbarium specimen prepared from the living cultivated plant (garden number: 2021.16651) on 13 November 2024, Romanov M. S. s.n. ( MW: MW0595864 ) .

Specimen in living collection: —Living plant from the same gathering as the paratypes (Nuraliev et al. 3080), garden number: 2021.16651.

Etymology: —The species epithet refers to its remarkable many-flowered inflorescences; the number of flowers per inflorescence in the new species is significantly higher than in most of its congeners.

Description:—Plant herbaceous, terrestrial, perennial, evergreen, entirely glabrous (except for roots). Rhizome decumbent, with short internodes, up to 4 cm long, about 5 mm in diameter at base, brown, bearing roots, cataphylls, foliage leaves and 1–2 inflorescences; apical (vertical) portion of rhizome supported by green or whitish prop roots; leaves and inflorescences confined mostly to apical portion of rhizome. Roots numerous, poorly branched, 0.8–2.3 mm in diameter, rigid, brown (when underground), densely covered with root hairs. Cataphylls chartaceous, lanceolate, up to 5 cm long, 1 cm wide at base, light brown, soon becoming dry, with green and rigid median portion 1–1.4 mm wide. Foliage leaves ascending, simple, stiff. Petiole adaxially flattened, 6.5–12.5 cm long, 0.7–1.4 mm in diameter. Leaf blade entire, narrowly elliptic (rarely almost linear), 11–16 cm long, 7–19 mm wide, 7–18 times as long as wide, dark green; base narrowly cuneate; apex attenuate; margin entire; longitudinal veins 5 (including midvein, showing basal perfect acrodromous venation), parallel, raised on both sides; transversal veinlets numerous, flexuous, faintly visible, sub-perpendicular to longitudinal veins. Inflorescence a raceme (i.e., flowers solitary in axils of primary bracts), erect to ascending, up to 42 cm long, usually strongly exceeding leaves. Peduncle erect, about 13 cm long, ca. 1.5 mm in diameter, longitudinally ribbed, green to dark violet, with dark violet ribs, bearing 1–3 sterile bracts. Sterile bracts lanceolate, navicular, 10–11 mm long, 1.7–2 mm wide at base, violet, indistinctly unicostate. Rachis straight, up to 29 cm long, longitudinally ribbed, colored as peduncle, bearing up to 100 flowers. Flower-subtending bracts lanceolate, arcuate, slightly navicular, 5–6 mm long, 1.2–1.5 mm wide at base, with membranous margin, green to violet, indistinctly unicostate. Flowers actinomorphic, bisexual, porrect (pointing upwards at a sharp angle to the rachis), generally brownish violet with some parts green. Pedicel 2.2–4.2 mm long, ca. 0.6 mm in diameter, ascending, articulated with ovary, colored as peduncle. Bracteole single, transversal, lanceolate, arcuate, navicular, 1.8–2 mm long, 1–1.2 mm wide, green to violet. Perianth widely opened, homochlamydeous, ca. 6 mm in diameter when lobes spreading horizontally and approximately 2.5–2.9 mm in diameter when lobes fully reflexed; tube vanishingly short (almost absent); lobes 6, arranged apparently in two whorls with imbricate-alternate aestivation (in bud); lobes subequal, trullate to ovate with rounded apex, 2.3–2.5 mm long, 1.3–1.5 mm wide at base, with entire margin, strongly reflexed to recurved, often touching pedicel by their apices, brownish violet with green glimpses especially at base. Stamens 6; filaments united forming fleshy corona-like structure (so-called corona); corona attached to ovary at the same level as perianth (free from perianth), 1.1–1.4 mm high, 2.2–2.6 mm in diameter, broadly dome-shaped to almost cylindrical, circular in outline, with apical part slightly incurved and divided into 6 broad teeth-like lobes in the radii of anthers, dark brownish violet and sometimes greenish especially along tepal bases; orifice of corona 1.3–1.5 mm in diameter; anthers in the radii of tepals, attached to the vertical inner surface of corona just below orifice, dorsifixed, introrse, sessile, ovate to subglobose (depending on stage of anthesis), 0.5–0.8 mm long, blue-purple, longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary almost inferior, broadly obconical, ca. 1.6 mm high, ca. 1.5 mm wide in upper part, 3-locular, each locule bearing 2 ovules; style about 1–1.2 mm high, 0.9–1.5 mm wide at base, conical with prominent furrows along borders between carpels, not projecting or slightly projecting from corona; stigmas 3, carinal, less than 0.5 mm long, occupying apical surface of style and not protruding beyond style width, verrucose. Fruit with shriveled pericarp exposing 1–5 seeds; mature seed ovoid, 14–16 mm long, 9–11 mm in diameter, cobalt blue, with fleshy sarcotesta.

Phenology: —Flowers and ripe seeds are recorded in January.

Distribution and ecology: — Peliosanthes multiflora is currently only known from a single location in Song Hinh Protected Forest (Phu Yen Province, Vietnam). The species inhabits a forest area at elevations around 250 m a.s.l., where about a dozen individuals were observed distanced no more than 1 km from each other.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Peliosanthes multiflora. A. Plant in natural habitat. B. Basal portion of above-ground shoot showing prop roots. Nuraliev et al. NUR 3080. Photos by M.S. Nuraliev.

FIGURE 2. Peliosanthes multiflora, general morphology. A. Plant in natural habitat with two inflorescences (yellow arrows). B. Rhizome (red arrow) and base of above-ground shoot (side view). C. Leaf blade, abaxial side. Nuraliev et al. NUR 3082. Photos by M.S. Nuraliev.

FIGURE 3. Peliosanthes multiflora, reproductive morphology. A. Inflorescence (side view). B. Portion of inflorescence with flowers at early anthesis (side view). C. Flower bud in axil of bract (side view). D, E. Flowers (side views). F, G. Flowers (semi-side views). H, I. Flowers (front views). J. Longitudinal section of flower. K. Apical portion of inflorescence with ripe seeds. Nuraliev et al. NUR 3080 (K) and Nuraliev et al. NUR 3082 (A–J). Photos by M.S. Nuraliev.

FIGURE 4. Peliosanthes multiflora, plant cultivated in a greenhouse. A. Plant with inflorescences. B. Apical portion of inflorescence (side view). C. Flowers on inflorescence rachis. D, E. Flowers (semi-side views). F. Flower in axil of bract (side view). G. Longitudinal section of flower. Nuraliev et al. NUR 3080. Photos by M.S. Romanov.