Species

B. grandis ssp. sinensis

Photos

3 photos

Identity

Genus: Begonia
Name: B. grandis ssp. sinensis
Form Variety: ssp. sinensis
Author: (A. de Candolle) Irmscher, Mitt. Inst. Allg. Bot. Hamburg
Publication Date: 1939
Place: North to Beijing, west to Shaanxi, east to Zhejiang, south to Guangxi and Yunnan
Habitat: on limestone rocks in forests 300-3400 m. alt.
Country: China
Region: Asia
Section: Diploclinium
Chr 2n: 26
Plant Type: Tuberous
Synonyms and Comments: sinensis A. de Candolle. 1859. ; martinii Léveillé, Bull. Soc. Agric. Sarthe 39:323. 1904, " martini ." —Irmscher in Handel-Mazzetti, Symb. Sin. 7:388. 1931. [= sinensis A. de Candolle. 1859] ; Mitt. Inst. Allg. Bot. Hamburg 10:494. 1939. — Cuizhi Gu, Ching-I Peng & Nicholas J. Turland, Flora of China 13, Begoniaceae 14:175-6. 2007. ; bulbosa Léveillé, Repert. Nov. Sp., 7:21. 1909 —Gagnepain, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. (Paris) 25:282. 1919. [= sinensis A. de Candolle. 1859.] —Irmscher, Mitt. Inst. Allg. Bot. Hamburg 10:494. 1939. — Cuizhi Gu, Ching-I Peng & Nicholas J. Turland, Flora of China 13, Begoniaceae 14:175-6. 2007.; evansiana Andrews var. sinensis F. A. Barkley & J. Golding, Sp. Begoniaceae, ed. 2:36. 1974, sphalmate pro grandis Dryander subsp. sinesis Irmscher. 1939.
Reference: Mitt. Inst. Allg. Bot. Hamburg 10:494, pl. 13. 1939. "grandis conta. sinensis". — Cuizhi Gu, Ching-I Peng & Nicholas J. Turland, Flora of China 13, Begoniaceae 14:175-6. 2007.; JGSL9/08
Article References: Curtis's botanical magazine, v. 125 = ser. 3, v. 55 (1899); Tebbitt, Begonias 5:140-41. 2005; Yu-Min Shui & Wen-Hong Chen, Begonia of China: p10, 2017
Photo References: Yu-Min Shui & Wen-Hong Chen, Begonia of China: p10-11, 2017

Plant

Description: Curtis's botanical magazine, v. 125 = ser. 3, v. 55 (1899) B. grandis subsp. sinensis (As SYN. B. sinensis): Begonia sinensis is well described by A. de Candolle, but is placed in the section Knesebeckia, from his character of which it differs in the segments of the placentas being ovuliferous on the outer faces only. He rightly compares it with B. Evansiana, Andr. (non Bot. Mag. t. 1473), but overlooks the fact that two plants are confounded under that name. One, the original, figured by Andrews (Bot. Rep. t. 627) said to have been found at the waterfall of Penang, with hardly any stipes to the head of stamens; the other, that of Bonpland (Jard. Malm. t. 63, and of this magazine, t. 1473), a much larger-flowered plant, with a long stipes supporting the head of stamens. Unfortunately, de Candolle has selected the latter as Andrews' species. Clarke, in "Flora Brit. Ind.," vol. ii. p. 638, cites B. sinensis (from the description) as a synonym of B. Evansiana, with which he unites the Bot. Mag. plant and B. obliqua, Thunb. With regard to "the waterfall in Penang" which Andrews gives as the habitat of B. Evansiana, this is no doubt an error; for C. Curtis, in his Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of that island, says “That plant has not been met with here, and could hardly be overlooked”. Aiton (Hort. Kew, ed. II. v. 313), who describes B. Evansiana as B. discolor (quoting both Bot. Rep. and Bot. Mag.), gives China as the native country whence it was introduced in 1804 by the Hon. E. I. Company. Though retaining the name of B. sinensis for this plant, I do not feel sure that it is not B. Evansiana of Andrews, from the figure of which it differs only in the deeply irregularly cut margins of the leaves. It is a widely diffused Chinese plant, there being specimens in Kew Herbarium from the neighborhood of Peking, the provinces of Hupeh and Kwangtung, and Island of Formosa. Seeds of B. sinensis, collected in Yunnan by Dr. Henry, M.A., F.L.S., of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, were received at the Royal Gardens, Kew in 1898. Plants raised from which flowered in October of the following year in a greenhouse. Description: Tuber brown, about the size of a large cobnut, giving off copious long flexuous brown fibers from it crown. Stem one and a half to two feet high, rather slender, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, simple or sparingly branched, pale green. Leaves three to five inches long, more or less unequal sided, ovate-cordate, acuminate, margin acutely lobulate, lobules coarsely, very irregularly, acutely serrate and serrulate, palmately five to nine-nerved at the base, thin, bright green above, paler often rose colored beneath, with hairy veins, axils often bulbiferous; petiole one to two inches long, stipules ovate, or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, green. Flowers monoecious, in axillary and terminal peduncled cymes. Male flowers rather shortly pedicelled, female flowers with much longer decurved pedicels. Male flowers: ¾ inch in diameter, bright rose red, sepals two, orbicular-ovate, petals two, very much smaller, oblong, stamens numerous, in a very shortly stipitate head, anthers oblong, obtuse. Female flower: rather larger, sepals and petals like the male but petals are broader, very unequal, or one only, styles short, stigmas reniform, papillose all over. Ovary with two short and one long wing, placenta bifid, arms ovuIiferous on the outer surfaces. - J. D. H.

Lineage

Parents

No parentage recorded.

sinensis A. de Candolle. 1859. ; martinii Léveillé, Bull. Soc. Agric. Sarthe 39:323. 1904, " martini ." —Irmscher in Handel-Mazzetti, Symb. Sin. 7:388. 1931. [= sinensis A. de Candolle. 1859] ; Mitt. Inst. Allg. Bot. Hamburg 10:494. 1939. — Cuizhi Gu, Ching-I Peng & Nicholas J. Turland, Flora of China 13, Begoniaceae 14:175-6. 2007. ; bulbosa Léveillé, Repert. Nov. Sp., 7:21. 1909 —Gagnepain, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. (Paris) 25:282. 1919. [= sinensis A. de Candolle. 1859.] —Irmscher, Mitt. Inst. Allg. Bot. Hamburg 10:494. 1939. — Cuizhi Gu, Ching-I Peng & Nicholas J. Turland, Flora of China 13, Begoniaceae 14:175-6. 2007.; evansiana Andrews var. sinensis F. A. Barkley & J. Golding, Sp. Begoniaceae, ed. 2:36. 1974, sphalmate pro grandis Dryander subsp. sinesis Irmscher. 1939.

Descendants

No recorded descendants.

Culture

Comments: Considered a cold hardy begonia as per John Boggan and his experience in his Washington DC garden.