Cultivar
B. ‘Bolidavis’
Identity
- Genus
- Begonia
- Name
- B. ‘Bolidavis’
- Originator
- Cayeux
- Date of Origin
- 1904
- Publication Date
- 1913
- Place
- France
- Country
- France
- Region
- Europe
- Plant Type
- Tuberous
- Female Parent
- B. boliviensis var. boliviensis
- Male Parent
- B. davisii
- Publication Reference
- KB;RH
- Article References
- Revue Horticole, Anne 1913
Plant
- Description
- Revue Horticole, Anne 1913 B. boliviensis sulphurea: In its issue of October 16, 1912, the Revue Horticole devoted an article to this curious plant, whose origin is certainly unknown to its readers. It is in addition to fix this small point of horticultural history that I allow myself to call again the attention on this interesting Begonia. In 1892, one of the employees of the Crop Department of our predecessors reported to me from a horticulturist in Vernon, Mr. Saint-Gilles, the existence of a tuberous Begonia of small size, excessively floriferous, whose foliage disappeared under the innumerable corollas pale yellow or sulfur yellow. I asked him to buy some copies that he brought back and when I saw the plant, I ordered him to buy all the stock, which was delivered to us in dry bulbs end of 1892 or beginning of 1893. We multiplied it so quickly that we soon presented a good lot, in October 1894, at the Exhibition of the National Society of Horticulture (October 4 to 7, 1894). In the Bulletin of the year 1894, page 759, you will find the report of M. Sallier for the floral section, in which the reporter reports a reward granted to MM. E. Forgeot and Co. for two Begonias present: one, ‘Madame Charrat’, a dwarf form of B. corallina; the other, Begonia boliviensis sulphurea, has pale yellow flowers, a curiosity. The journal Le Moniteur d'horticulture, in its issue of June 10, 1895, published a color chart of Begonia boliviensis sulphurea, which was put on the market the same year. It seems to me interesting to reproduce here the description given by M. Bellair in the Revue Horticole: A dwarf plant with a thick stem producing very branched, very bushy, and which rise to 25 cm. well supplied with leaf blade, narrow, long, with a moiré surface, dark green, with parts more dark and brown, recalling, in this, the leaves of B. pearcei, of which B. boliviensis sulphurea appears to be a hybrid. Medium flowers, campanuliform, like those of B. boliviensis, but with larger pieces, and pale yellow in color. Inflorescences erect, well cleared above the foliage and covering the plant with a multitude of flowers. A curious peculiarity of B. boliviensis sulphurea is its sexuality. We observed a few thousand of this Begonia, without being able to discover on any individual a single female flower. All the flowers are males. However, some of the plants of B. boliviensis sulphurea have an ovarian-like organ and, on its surface, other egg-like organs. These special flowers would be hermaphrodites, but hermaphroditism probably incomplete, because I have never seen them generate any seed. Having no exact information on how this Begonia was obtained and assuming a complex, probably hybrid origin (since it only gave male flowers), I named it B. boliviensis sulphurea, although the plant recalled Some characters are almost certain relatives with B. Pearcei. The very great flowering of the new recruit (see Fig. 65 and 66, reproducing photographs taken in our cultures at Petit-Vitry) hit me and I tried to use it as a pollen carrier in various crosses, with little result. We must arrive in 1902 to see the first interesting gains appear and we will find in the Journal of the National Horticultural Society of France of June 1904 (volume V, page 344) the presentation of the first truly deserving hybrids, in the creation of which Begonia boliviensis sulphurea intervened. The minutes of the Floriculture Committee say: June 9, 1904. Presentation of MM. Cayeux and Le Clerc, 8, Quai de la Megisserie, Paris: The tuberous Begonia hybrid 'Clair de Lune' (Fig. 67). This plant represents the type of subjects obtained from a hybridization between a B. tuberous flower pollinated with B. boliviensis sulphurea. The plant has a higher stem than the mother, but is stronger and shorter than that of the father; its leaves are a little reminiscent of those of B. boliviensis; the flowering is excessive. The flowers, of medium size, have the interior hue of yellow salmon to different degrees. (1st class bonus.) The tuberous Begonia 'Bolidavis', a hybrid of B. Davisii and B. boliviensis sulphurea. In this hybridization, the plants kept the dwarf and compact port of the mother, and the red color of B. Davisii became yellow, or the orange color obtained. The subjects are very floriferous and can be used advantageously as border plants or for lapis. (Certificate of Merit.) The B. Clair de Lune is a very nice achievement, the great diffusion of which is unfortunately somewhat hampered by a certain difficulty of multiplication. Continuing research and making new with B. boliviensis sulphurea, I am sure that in a short time we will see gains of the highest interest as very abundant and continuous flowering plants, therefore very long duration. - Ferd. Cayeux.
Lineage
Parents
Ancestry tree
Descendants
No recorded descendants.
Culture
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