| Original Botanical Description or Link to | Begonia scabrifolia C.I Peng, Yan Liu & C.W.Lin,
sp. nov. (Sect. Coelocentrum) 澀葉秋海棠 (Figs. 12 and
13).
Type: CHINA. Guangxi, detailed locality unknown,
cultivated in Guilin Botanical Garden, plant collected on
18 May 2009, type specimens (in fowers) pressed from
plants cultivated in the experimental greenhouse, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, Ching-I Peng 22197 (holotype: IBK;
isotype: HAST-144969).
Monoecious rhizomatous herb. Rhizomes stout,
creeping, to 10 cm or longer, 7–15 mm thick, internodes congested, subglabrous. Stipules persistent, pale yellowish green to reddish brown, triangular-ovate,
6–11 mm long, 6–9 mm wide, herbaceous, strongly
keeled, margin fmbricate, apex aristate, arista 1–3 mm
long. Leaves alternate; petiole terete, yellowish green to
crimson, 4.5−15 cm long, 3–4 mm thick, white villous
or sericeous; leaf blade asymmetric, oblique, widely ovate,
9−14.5 cm long, 6–8.5 cm wide, broad side 4–6 cm wide,
basal lobes cordate, 3.7–4.5 cm long, apex acuminate
to shortly caudate, margin denticulate and densely scabrous; leaf thick chartaceous, adaxially bright green, dark
green to brownish green, sometimes embellished with
crushing silvery white striped between primary and secondary veins; surface shortly scabrous, hair white; abaxially pale green, scabrous on all veins; venation basally
ca. 7 palmate, midrib distinct, ca. 3 secondary veins on
each side, tertiary veins percurrent or reticulate. Inforescences axillary, dichasial cymes, arising directly from
rhizome, branched 2 or 3 times; peduncle pale green to
red, 5–10 cm long, velutinous; bracts persistent, pale
green, ovate to widely ovate, sometimes with 1 or 2 lobes,
frst pair 5–7 mm long, 2.5–6 mm wide, margin fmbriate, bracts of upper inforescence similar but smaller.
Staminate fower: pedicel 1.5–2.5 cm long, sericeous,
tepals 4, white to pinkish; outer 2 very widely ovate to
suborbicular, 12–18 mm long, 16–20 mm wide, abaxially sericeous, inner 2 obovate 10–13 mm long, 4–6 mm
wide; androecium zygomorphic, 4–5 mm across; stamens
golden yellow, 17–33; flaments shortly fused at base;
anthers obovate, ca. 1.2 mm long, 2-locular, apex retuse,
subequal at flaments. Pistillate fower: pedicel 1.5–2 cm
long, sericeous, tepals 3, white to pinkish, outer 2 suborbicular, 11–15 mm long, 12–18 mm wide, abaxially
sericeous; inner 1 narrowly oblong to elliptic, 8–10 mm
long, 4–5 mm wide, glabrous; ovary widely ellipsoid,
5–7 mm long, 2.5–4 mm thick (wings excluded), pinkish,
sericeous; 3-winged, wings unequal, yellowish green to
pinkish, narrowly crescent-shaped, lateral wings 2, narrowly, ca. 2 mm high, abaxial wing 4 mm high, margin
entire, sericeous; styles 3, fused at base, yellow, ca. 5 mm
long, stigma spirally twisted. Capsule: tepals persistent;
capsule body ellipsoid, ca. 1 cm long, 5 mm thick (wings
excluded), greenish when fresh; wings unequal, crescentshaped, lateral wings 2, ca. 3.5 mm high, abaxial wing
4.5 mm high.
Distribution and ecology
Begonia scabrifolia has long been cultivated in Guilin
Botanical Garden, Guangxi. Its precise origin is not
known. Etymology
Te species epithet refers to the rough and scabrous leaf
surface of the adaxial side. |
