The genus Aspidistra Ker Gawler (1822: 628) contains more than 160 species in tropical and subtropical SE-Asia, with the centre of species diversity in southern China and adjacent northern Vietnam (Tillich 2005, 2014, Tillich & Averyanov 2012, Vislobokov et al. 2013). In Vietnam, the genus has more than 50 species with many locally endemic taxa, and about 2/3 of them were discovered from limestone areas in north Vietnam, while ca. 1/3 of species were recently described from sandstone forests in the southern part of the country (Gagnepain 1934, Bogner & Arnautov 2004, Bräuchler & Ngoc 2005, Tillich 2005, 2006, 2008, Tillich et al. 2007, Tillich & Averyanov 2008, 2012, Tillich & Leong-Škorničková 2013, Averyanov & Tillich 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016a, 2016b, Leong-Škorničková et al. 2014, Colin 2015, Averyanov et al. 2016, Vislobokov 2015, Vislobokov et al. 2013, 2014a, 2014b, 2016a, 2016b, Lý & Tillich 2016, 2017).