Cultivar

B. ‘Pictavensis’

Identity

Genus: Begonia
Name: B. ‘Pictavensis’
Originator: Bruant
Date of Origin: 1891
Place: Poitiers
Country: France
Region: Europe
Plant Type: Shrub-like
Female Parent: B. scharffiana var. scharffiana
Male Parent: B. metallica
Publication Reference: H; WBHC-WW

Plant

Description: Revue horticole. Paris: Librairie agricole de la maison rustique,1829-1974. Anne 1882: Page 377-9. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/196510 The hybridization of species of the genus Begonia between them has produced very remarkable plants in recent years, and the last word is not said as to the results which ornamental horticulture may await. Among the sowers, Mr. G. Bruant, of Poitiers, is one of the most skilful and happiest. Its remarkable hybrids of Begonia discolor and Rex are now in all the collections, recalling the first of these two species by the mode of vegetation, by the stems, and the second by the development and coloring of the foliage. More vigorous than the two original types, these new varieties are also remarkable for their resistance to open ground during the summer. We cultivate several specimens, which have acquired a considerable development within a few weeks, principally the variete J. Bonnel, whose vigor is extreme. These successes did not slow down Mr. G. Bruant's business. Here he has just turned his attention to two well-known plants: the B. semperfiorens (Link and Otto), a Brazilian plant whose variete has pink flowers, obtained in Touraine, (1) presents the curious faculty of passing from the first to the rank of race, and of reproducing itself identically by sowing; and B. Schmidti (Hort.), a form reminiscent of B. metallica, though less vigorous and different in several characters. The B. semperfiorens type, which provided pollen, is an all green plant, has short stems, knotty and succulent, leaves obliquely oval subcordiformes or cornet, crenelees, entirely glabrous, with the exception of a few marginal bristles; paucifulous peduncles; orbicular sepals, obtuse linear obovate petals; oval, ocher, bilobed, sessile, ciliolean; angles of the obtuse capsule. B. Schmidti, a plant of low vegetation, having served as a mother or a seed-bearer, is entirely purplish red, with the exception from the top of the limbus. Its stems are cylindrical, not swollen at the joints, all covered, like petioles and peduncles, with long soft white hairs. Its leaves, long petiole, oval, very inequilaterales, acute, are doubly dentees, crenelees, almost lobes, pubescent on both sides, green on, and deeply veined, dark purple red below, except the edge which is green, has scarious stipulations, oval, acute, persistent. Its red peduncles, pauciflores, bear white flowers, pedicellees, a bractees ovales oblongues, highly hairy, ciliees, pedicules; the male flowers have the orbicular sepals and shorter petals, onguicules and four narrower ones; the female flowers have oblong oval sepals, cilia, much smaller, and subconiform petals. The ovary has triangular wings. It is a very curious intermediary between these two plants which Mr. G. Bruant has obtained and which we now describe. The plant being born at Poitiers, it was proper to apply to it a local name, and this will be B. Pictavensis. This hybrid is more vigorous than both parents, but especially much more than the mother. Sme the same day as them, the newcomer, of whom he has been raised, has signaled himself by his extraordinary vigor and his propensity to ramify without delay the rescue of the pinch. All seeds from this hybridization yielded identical plants except three flowers. This uniformity, of the most remarkable, leads us to believe that this form would reproduce exactly seeds. Description. - A vigorous plant, with a very fast vegetation, of the base, stems stalks, fleshy, swollen joints, varnishes, of a coralline red, furnished, like the petioles and leaves, with some white, soft, sparsely hair; obtuse obtuse obtuse, persistent, persistent; leaves brievement petiolees, ovales subcordiformes cucullees, dark green on, dyed purple below, doubling crenelees-dentees, ciliees and marginees de rose; inflorescences in cymbals, coralline pedicels; bractees and bracteoles rounded or acute, strongly lacinate; males tetrameres, a sepales and whole petals, white pink, more colored underneath, the first suborbicular or largely obovate, the second shorter, four times narrower, linear spatulas, echancres at the top; and more short than the anther; female flowers pentamerous, a petals and sepals smaller and shorter, of the same color, obovate, obtuse; ovary pink, triquetre, acute triangular major lobe, accompanied at the base, as well as the two minors, of a ciliated-lacinated oval bract. In summary, rapid vegetation, harbor tall, very tame, red stems, cymes well furnished with flowers rose, tone of the foliage velvet and violet lava, perpetual bloom, these are the distinctive horticultural characteristics of this good new plant, which will be very advantageous for trade and summer floriculture. We understand that the Begonia Pictavensis will soon be on sale by Mr. Bruant.