Species
B. microptera
Photos
2 photos
Identity
- Genus
- Begonia
- Name
- B. microptera
- Author
- W. J. Hooker, Bot. Mag.
- Publication Date
- 1857
- Country
- Borneo
- Region
- Asia
- Section
- unassigned to a section
- Reference
- Bot. Mag. 83:pl. 4974. 1857.; JGSL9/08
Plant
- Description
- Curtis's botanical magazine, v. 83 = ser. 3, v. 13, 1857 B. microptera: The leaves of this species are very pretty, especially on the underside, where the bright red, prominent veins are very conspicuous; but the flowers, though numerous, are deficient in color, neither are the stamens or stigmas of so deep a yellow as is usual with the Begoniaceae. The peculiar character of the species is to be found in the very narrow wings of the fruit; two of the angles, indeed, can hardly be said to be winged at all, and the third has a very narrow wing, more so than in any species with which I am acquainted. It is a native of Borneo, whence it was imported by Messrs. Low, of Clapton, in whose stove it flowered in the month of December 1856. Description: Stems a foot to a foot and a half high, terete, green or greenish, subglanduloso-pubescent, as is the rest of the plant, branched, branches few. Leaves subdistichous, four to nearly six inches long, ovato-lanceolate, subfalcate, inequilateral, acuminate, sharply duplicato-serrate, the inferior base of the leaf dilated into a large auricle; the color a rather dark, full green above, beneath very pale green, with the prominent nerves bright red, and there is a red spot also at the base of the costa above. Petiole about half all inch long, red at the top, where it unites with the leaf, almost concealed by the two, rather erect, lanceolato-subulate, apiculate, membranaceous stipules, equal in length with the petiole. Panicle terminal, corymbose, shortly pedunculate: pedicels red where they join the flower. Bracts ovate, acuminate, ciliato-serrate. Male flowers: Sepals four, spreading, two large cordate, two small oblong-lanceolate, all of them entire at the margin. Stamens about twenty, closely compacted. Female flowers: Sepals five, spreading, equal, obovate, moderately acute, serrated. Fruit or capsule (immature) oblong, triangular, downy; two angles sharp, wingless; the third with a narrow wing, a little broader upwards. Styles and stigmas as in the genus.
Lineage
Parents
No parentage recorded.
Descendants
No recorded descendants.
Culture
No populated fields in this section.