富宁沿阶草 fu ning yan jie cao

Stem rhizomelike, elongate, stout, with dense nodes, usually with somewhat woody, white-hairy roots. Leaves somewhat crowded and subterminal, abaxially slightly glaucous, grasslike, 30--50 cm × 4--6 mm, 7--9-veined, margin serrulate, white membranous at base. Scape arising from an apical leaf axil, much shorter than leaves. Inflorescence a reduced panicle, 10--22-flowered; bracts ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, basal one ca. 6 mm. Flowers solitary or paired; pedicel ca. 4 mm, articulate distally. Tepals purplish, oblong to ovate-lanceolate, ca. 6 × 2 mm. Filaments distinct, ca. 1 mm; anthers ca. 4 mm. Style ca. 4.5 mm, slender. Fl. May. 2 n = 36*.

* Evergreen broad-leaved forests; 1000--1600 m. SE Yunnan.

One of us (Tamura) has never seen specimens of this species and, therefore, does not know the exact characteristics of the stem. If the stem is not rhizomelike and the leaves are not only tufted subterminally but also at distant nodes along the stem, then Ophiopogon fooningensis is similar to O. siamensis M. N. Tamura (Acta Phytotax. Geobot. 49: 27. 1998), from N Thailand. However, O. fooningensis flowers in May, whereas O. siamensis flowers in September and October.