B. ignita

Culture

Comments

Phylogenetic reconstructions using chloroplast DNA sequence data of Begonia ignita (ndhA intron, ndhF–rpl32 spacer, rpl32–trnL spacer, unpublished data, D. Thomas) integrated with previously published data of other Asian taxa (Thomas et al., 2012; Moonlight et al., 2015), including accessions of about 74% of the currently accepted species from Sulawesi, corroborate a putative Sulawesi origin. Begonia ignita is retrieved in a well-supported clade of Sulawesi endemics in Begonia section Petermannia. It is sister to a well-supported clade including two subclades: a subclade of endemic species distributed on the northern arm of Sulawesi, and a subclade of species endemic to eastern Central Sulawesi.

Original Botanical Description or Link to

Plant perennial, monoecious. Stem procumbent and rooting at nodes, ascending at the apex, olive to magenta, 8-20 cm long, 4-6 mm across, glabrous, internodes 0.5-5 cm long; stipules widely ovate-triangular, 8-12 mm long, c. 6 mm wide, hyaline, reddish, strongly keeled, margin entire, apex aristate, arista c. 2.5-4 mm long. Leaves 5-10, held horizontally; petiole terete, 3.5-8 cm long, 3.5-6 mm across, olive-red to crimson, sub-appressed sparsely velutinous, slightly grooved adaxially; lamina cordiform to widely cordiform, basifixed, symmetric or subsymmetric, cordate at base, margin slightly undulate and distantly denticulate, glabrous, apex acuminate, 7-12 cm long, 6.5-11 cm wide, basal lobes equal or subequal, to 2.5 cm long, thickly chartaceous, adaxially dark olive-green to dark maroon, embellished with a silvery green band (sometimes with irregular spots of variable sizes between veins) running parallel to the margin, veins red towards base; slightly rugose between primary veins; abaxially pale red to magenta; venation palmate-pinnate, midrib conspicuous, 6-9.5 cm long with c. 3 pairs of major lateral veins, each branching dichotomously. Inflorescence terminal, bisexual, protogynous, cymose-paniculate, 13-22 cm long; bracts magenta to pale rosy-brown, hyaline, persistent, widely ovate, (4-)8-12 mm long, (2-)4-7 mm wide, decreasing in size towards the more distal inflorescence nodes, aristate at apex, arista 3^1 mm long, margin entire; pistillate flowers produced on up to 3 subsequent basal nodes of the inflorescence, usually solitary or sometimes together with 1 staminate flower; staminate flowers usually only produced in distal inflorescence part, up to 15, in several (1—)2—3-flowered compressed monochasial partial inflorescences borne on short lateral branches (0.1-2 cm), at the most distal nodes sometimes reduced to a single flower, erect or ascending, reddish to crimson, glabrous. Staminate flower: pedicel 11-18 mm long, glabrous; tepals 2, orange or pale tangerine to vermilion, glabrous, widely ovate to suborbicular, margin entire, base rounded, 10-15 mm long, 9-11 mm wide; androecium subzygomorphic, stamens 35^15, yellow, filaments shortly fused at base; anthers c. 0.8 mm long, oblongoid, subequal in length to filaments. Pistillate flower: pedicel 6-13 mm long, glabrous; tepals 4 (rarely 2, 3 or 5), pale orange to vermilion, ovate or obovate to oblanceolate, 9-15 mm long, 4-10 mm wide, glabrous; ovary reddish, body trigonous-ellipsoid, 9-11 mm long, c. 7 mm across, 3-winged; wings cuneate or rounded at base, truncate or rounded at the apex, 12-15 mm long, 2-4 mm wide, locules 3, placentae axile, bilamellate; styles 3, yellow, bifid, c. 4 mm long; stigmas in a spiral band and papillose all around. Fruits not seen.