Cultivar
B. ‘Crestabruchii’
Photos
5 photos
Identity
- Genus
- Begonia
- Name
- B. ‘Crestabruchii’
- Originator
- Helen Lewis
- Date of Origin
- 1938
- Place
- Rivera, Ca.
- Country
- USA
- Region
- America
- Plant Type
- Rhizomatous
- Female Parent
- B. ‘manicata Crispa’
- Male Parent
- B. ‘Sunderbruchii’
- Publication Reference
- K; B74 d294; B97 r165; YBG; BfBEH 81 1976;
- Article References
- The Begonian, June 1948 p. 130;
- Photo References
- JBS, Begonias :45. 1980; Murotani, Begonia in Colour :127. 1983; BfBEH 81 1976; The Begonian, Nov 1961; The Begonian, Nov 1959; Exotica - Pictorial Encyclopedia of Indoor plants; Begonias, Misono 1974: 37 (42);
Plant
- Description
- B. CRESTABRUCHI - By Alice M. Clark, San Diego, California Sometimes we find a begonia so amazing that it causes even a layman to stop and exclaim. Such is B. crestabruchi, introduced about 1938 by the Lewis Begonia Gardens in Rivera, California. It is a happy crossing of B. manicata crispa with B. Sunderbruchi, giving size and hardiness to the first parent, which is usually a bit difficult to propagate. In California, it is often grown in a basket where it makes a solid mass of rhizomes, one prizewinning specimen here was so thick with ruffled leaves that it looked like the neck rucking of an Elizabethan court attendant. Because of its lush growth, I never expected to sketch it. Mrs. Hunter drew my attention to it in March, and as I was seeking a model at Rosecroft Gardens I could not resist the rare combination of perfect flowers with fine foliage. The leaves were in good condition because it was in the glasshouse. Those outdoors at this season are bedraggled at blooming time, but in summer they are so heavily frilled that it is difficult to see the centers. Bear this in mind if your specimen differs from the illustration. Like its two parents, B. crestabruchi has a thick rhizome but it is inclined to grow low like the Star family. The color is reddish green, sprinkled with round white dots. A wide, pale-green stipule is at the base of each leaf stalk, its end twisted to a long point, with coarse white hairs on the incurved sides. The new leaf appears as a tiny pink spear among thick hairs. It grows rapidly, light silky hairs showing against its dark surface, while longer stiffer ones make a collar at the neck of the pink twist even before it unfolds into a leaf. At maturity, the petiole is six or more inches long and at least ½ inch wide, slightly flattened on each side. A watery, brownish-green in color, it is flecked with fine white streaks and red dots that mark the base of many white hairs. Young or old, the crisp surface of the shining leaves gives the feeling of new grass. It is much duller beneath. The front leaf of my sketch measured 9 inches across. The ruffled edge is tinted with red or pink, like the curly lettuce we used to grow, the main veins of which there are eight or nine, are very conspicuous. The two upper ones form the top edge of the leaf, spreading an inch or more before breaking out into green ruffles. Each vein is the center of a Jull flounce, madly slashed and scalloped on the margin, which turns back to show the lighter lining and red edge, tufted with fine white hairs. The lime colored ribs have a tendon of pink running down each middle, which is quite red in some plants. On the reverse side, the veins are roundly elevated, punctuated with red-rooted hairs, and additional clusters of red bristles. reminiscent of B. manicata. B. crestabruchi looks more like its Star parent in form, (if the lobes were filled in,) as it has the single ring of coarse hairs at the base of the leaf and the strongly marked ribs. In color and curly margin, it favors the mother plant, except that the surface between the veins is fuller, giving the leaf a swish like the skirts of a colonial belle. The longest flower stem in the drawing is 11 inches to the first intersection, 20 inches in all and a bit more than Ii. inch wide. It is a pale tone of reddish-green, striated with white, with a few fine hairs. There is a pair of bracts at each joint, thin membranes that turn brown as they persist. The main branches on the peduncle are one-sided, like B. Sunderbruchi: The male blooms were tiny round things that fell away long before they opened, ·but the pistillate flowers, develop beautifully on their red-jointed pedicels that are about ½ nch long. Three pair of light yellow, untwisted stigma form the center of two, sometimes three, irregular rounded petals about half an inch long. Two wings of the ovary are alike, with the third more extended. A small bract tries to protect one side while a more slender one mounts guard over the keel of the other. The blooms I have painted are tinted pink, except for a touch of green over the seed-pod, but those on a plant in the lath house, with overhead sunshine, are a bright rose. Remember, when you view my sketch, that it is a small sample of B. crestabruchi, with only one rhizome that has not started to increase. In the month since it was painted, two more leaves have grown up into full view. If they had developed earlier this illustration would never have been finished. As it was, it took so long that it missed the deadline. It was weary work winding in and out of B. crestbruchi's curlicues, often getting lost in the maze, so I may be pardoned for a lack of enthusiasm for Mrs. Lewis's remarkable creation. It does not need my sponsorship. When you see it you immediately strive to conjure up a new descriptive word to add to our exclamatory begonia vocabulary. It is simpler both for the artist and the grower to buy this begonia and relax while listening to the fervent and envious remarks of their visitors.
- Plant Spread
- Wide
- Other Features
- Frilled edges to leaves
- Sun Tolerance
- Morning or Afternoon sun
Lineage
30 descendants
Parents
Ancestry tree
Descendants
30 recorded children
As female parent
28
Male parent: B. heracleifolia var. heracleifolia
Male parent: B. ‘Bowtique’
Male parent: B. unknown
Male parent: B. ‘Scene Stealer’
Male parent: B. glabra var. glabra
Male parent: B. ‘Mandarin’
Male parent: B. ‘Griselda’
Male parent: B. ‘Roi’
Male parent: B. chance seedling
Male parent: B. ‘Baby Douk’
Male parent: B. ‘Immense’
Male parent: B. unknown
Male parent: B. ‘Baloo’
Male parent: B. chance seedling
Male parent: B. ‘Bokit’
Male parent: B. unknown
Male parent: B. ‘Pattern’
Male parent: B. ‘Bokit’
Male parent: B. chance seedling
Male parent: B. ‘Erythrophylla’
Male parent: B. ‘Scene Stealer’
Male parent: B. ‘Carol Star’
Male parent: B. chance seedling
Male parent: B. chance seedling
Male parent: B. heracleifolia var. heracleifolia
Male parent: B. ‘Bedford Delight’
Male parent: B. ‘Baloo’
Male parent: B. u067
As male parent
2
Female parent: B. conchifolia var. conchifolia
Female parent: B. ‘Carolyn Ann’
Culture
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