B. scabrifolia

Culture

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.