B. longiornithophylla

Culture

Original Botanical Description or Link to

Begonia longiornithophylla C.I Peng, W.B.Xu & Yan Liu, sp. nov. (Sect. Coelocentrum) 長莖鳥葉秋海棠 (Figs. 7 and 8). Type: CHINA, Guangxi, Chongzuo Shi, Daxin County, Xialei Town, Tiandeng Tun, on rocky forest foor, 22°52’19”N, 106°43’31”E, elev. ca. 550 m, plant collected on 23 June 2008, type specimens (in fowers) pressed from plants cultivated in the experimental greenhouse, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, Ching-I Peng 21518-A with Shin-Ming Ku, Chih-Kai Yang, Wei-Bin Xu, Bo Pan & Yun-Fei Deng (holotype: IBK; isotypes: E, HAST-144967, K, KUN, PE). Monoecious rhizomatous herb. Rhizomes much elongate, to 50 cm long, 6–12 mm across, internodes (1–)3–9 cm long, purple red, pilose to tomentose. Stipules persistent, red, herbaceous, ovate, ca. 2 cm long, 8 mm wide, strongly-keeled, apex aristate, arista ca. 3 mm long, villous along midrib, margin ciliate. Leaves alternate; petioles terete, 3–21 cm long, 5 mm across, red-brown, villous to tomentose; leaf blade asymmetric, ovate, 5.5–12 cm long, 3.5–8 cm wide, apex acuminate, base strongly obliquely cordate, subcoriaceous, adaxially green, scabrid and glandular punctate, abaxially red-scabrous on veins, margin crenulate and ciliate; venation palmate. Inforescences axillary, arising directly from rhizome, cymes dichasial, branched 2–3 times, protandrous; peduncle 8–20 cm long, 3 mm across, glandular-pilose; bracts persistent, ovate, 10 mm long, 7 mm wide, light yellow green or somewhat with reddish veins, margin serrate, with hair on the apex of each tooth. Staminate fower: pedicel ca. 1.8 cm, glandular-pilose, tepals 4, outer 2 elliptic, 15–18 mm long, 12–15 mm wide, pinkish-white, abaxially red-pilose, margin sparsely ciliate, inner 2 elliptic, ca. 12 mm long, 3 mm wide, white; androecium zygomorphic, ca. 4 mm across, stamens ca. 32, flaments fused at base, obovate, 2-locular, connective apex retuse. Pistillate fower: pedicel ca. 18 mm long, glandular-pilose, tepals 3, outer 2 elliptic to sub-orbicular, 10–15 mm long, ca. 13 mm wide, pinkish-white, inner 1 oblanceolate, ca. 12 mm long, 4 mm wide, white, ovary trigonous-ellipsoid, 7–9 mm long, 3 mm thick (wings excluded), glandular-pilose, 1-locular, placenta parietal, 3-winged; wings unequal, abaxial wing crescent-shaped, ca. 4 mm high, lateral wings 2 mm high, pinkish; styles 3, fused at base, yellow, 5 mm long, stigma spirally twisted. Capsules trigonous-ellipsoid, ca. 13 mm long, 5 mm thick (wings excluded), style and stigma persistent; abaxial wing ca. 5 mm high, lateral wings 3 mm high. Chromosome cytology Somatic chromosomes at metaphase of Begonia longiornithophylla were counted as 2n=30 (Fig. 9a), identical to the majority of species of Sect. Coelocentrum (Chung et al. 2014; Han et al. 2018). Te length of chromosomes varied from ca. 1.1 to 1.6 µm long. Although several longer chromosomes were metacentric and/or submetacentric, the centromere positions of most chromosomes could not be determined. Satellites were not observed. Distribution and ecology Southwestern Guangxi, China. On forest foor, creeping on limestone rocks or clifs in broadleaf forest. Phenology Flowering from February to May. Fruiting from May to July Etymology Te species epithet refers to its resemblance to Begonia ornithophylla Irmsch., distinct from the latter by its elongated rhizomes.