Species
B. wageneriana
Photos
3 photos
Identity
- Genus
- Begonia
- Name
- B. wageneriana
- Author
- W. J. Hooker, Bot. Mag.
- Publication Date
- 1857
- Country
- Venezuela
- Region
- America
- Section
- Cyathocnemis?
- Plant Type
- Shrub-like
- Synonyms and Comments
- wageneria A. de Candolle, Prodr. 15(1):366. 1864
- Reference
- Bot. Mag. 83:pl. 4988.1857, non W.J. Hooker, Bot. Mag. 84: pl. 5047. 1858. —A. de Candolle, Prodr. 15(1):289. 1864.; JGSL9/08
Plant
- Description
- Curtis's botanical magazine, v. 83 = ser. 3, v. 13, (1857) B wageneriana: Native of Venezuela, where it \Vas detected by Mr. Wagener, and sent to the Royal Gardens of Kew from the Berlin Garden under the name of Moschkowitzia wageneriana. The genus is formed by our excellent friend Dr. Klotzsch in the work above quoted. Of course, opinions will differ as to the importance given by this indefatigable botanist to the characters which constitute genera in Begoniaceae. For ourselves, we deem it to be the most accordant to nature to preserve the old genus Begonia (with perhaps some exceptions) intact, and consider the so-called generic distinctions recently suggested as sectional characters. At any rate, before such genera can be finally decided upon, the numerous species, comparatively unknown to Dr. Klotzsch, of India and other parts of the old world, should be taken into account. The present is a stove plant and a free flowerer, but rather of straggling habit. It is remarkable for the white or cream-white cymes of two-petaled (mostly) male flowers, and the pale-green cymes of five-petaled (mostly) female flowers, with their long, twisted lobes or branches of the style. It flowers in the spring months. Description: Our growing plants of this are from one to two feet high, glabrous in every part, and of a pale green color. Stems terete, succulent, weak, erect, with rather straggling branches. Leaves cordato-ovate, acuminate, with a deep sinus at the base, subpeltate, the margin obscurely lobed and more or less dentato-serrated. Veins radiating from the base. Petiole one and a half to two inches long, a little tinged with purple, as are the veins beneath, and generally the underside of the young leaves. Peduncles axillary and terminal, cymose, each cyme having generally a predominance of either male or female flowers, repeatedly dichotomous; branchlets spreading. Male flowers di-sepalous, sepals cordato- or reniformi-, orbicular, white, spreading. Stamens forming a dense compressed head. Female flowers pentasepalous, each subtended by two, oblong, ciliated, appressed bracts: sepals small, green, oblong-spathulate, nearly equal. Ovary (or young fruit) turbinate, triangular, one of the wings elongated, ovato-triquetrous, acute, the two others short; Curtis's botanical magazine, v. 84 = ser. 3, v. 14, (1858) B. wageneriana: This may possess less beauty than many of the extensive genus Begonia, yet the deep yellow-green of the foliage, the rich color of the petioles and peduncles, and the very numerous, white, starry flowers, yellow in the center, renders it a desirable inmate of the stove, and it continues blossoming for a long time in the early spring and summer. It is a native of Venezuela, and was introduced by Mr. Wagener to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Berlin whence our plants have been derived. Description: Plant wholly glabrous. Stem erect, two and a half to three feet high, terete, somewhat zigzag, pale green-brown. Leaves five to six inches and longer, cordato-ovate, subfalcate, very unequally sided, subpeltate, acuminate, yellowish-green, paler beneath, one (the largest) side subangulato-sinuate at the margin, the other side and the acuminated apex serrated, veins prominent beneath. Petioles red, terete, erect, about half the length of the leaf. Stipules caducous, nearly an inch long, membranous, oblong, with a rather long mucro at the point. Peduncles axillary, very long, red, terete, succulent, bearing a much di-trichotomously branched cymose panicle of numerous small white flowers, sterile and fertile on different cymes. Sterile flowers of four, spreading, rather obtuse, white sepals. Stamens numerous, very compact, linear, yellow, collected into a nearly sessile globose head or ball. Fertile flowers of five, white, ovate, acute sepals, rather smaller than the sterile ones. Capsule obconical, with three unequal wings; two short, obtuse, and slightly denticulate; the third thrice as long, triangular, obtuse.
Lineage
Parents
No parentage recorded.
wageneria A. de Candolle, Prodr. 15(1):366. 1864
Descendants
No recorded descendants.
Culture
No populated fields in this section.