Back to records

Cultivar

B. ‘Reniformis’

Photos

1 photo

Identity

Genus
Begonia
Name
B. ‘Reniformis’
Plant Type
Thick Stem
Publication Reference
1981 Begonias : The Complete Reference Guide by Mildred Thompson
Article References
Curtis's botanical magazine, v. 60 = ser. 2, v. 7, 1833

Plant

Description
Curtis's botanical magazine, v. 60 = ser. 2, v. 7, 1833 B. reniformis: Description: Stem three to four feet high, the thickness of one finger, fleshy. Leaves large, upon petiole a long as themselves, reniform, with a deep sinus, in comparison with other species of the Genus, very lightly unequal, many angled, serrated, somewhat pubescent, opaque, marked with numerous veins, which are sunk on the upper surface; prominent beneath; green on both sides, but much paler beneath. The larger leaves are nearly a span in diameter. Peduncle six to eight inches long, terminated by a di-trichotomous cyme, the ultimate branches umbellate and very slender, white. Flowers white, small, lightly downy. Of the male, the Corolla consists of four unequal, pure white petals, two of them orbicular or inclining to heart-shaped, two oblong and much smaller. Anthers numerous, yellow. Female flowers few in the specimen before me, very small, the petals closed. Germen with one large, white, almost triangular wing, and two obsolete ones. From the Botanic Garden of Liverpool, whence it was communicated as having been received from Professor Lehman, of Hamburg, under the name of B. grandis; but there is already a Japanese species of that name, and certainly very different from ours, which, moreover, appears to me to accord with the B. reniformis of Dryander, a native of Brazil, the native country also probably of our plant. It is a good deal allied to the B. longipes of this work, t. 3061, especially in the general structure of the inflorescence, but in that species, the flowers are considerably larger, the leaves are much more oblique, and extremely glossy, and quite glabrous above. B. reniformis requires the heat of the stove, and its flowering season is January. It is quite impossible to convey, in a drawing, an idea of the peculiar pearly and semi-transparent appearance of the blossoms, and of the panicle in which they are borne.

Lineage

Parents

No parentage recorded.

Descendants

No recorded descendants.

Culture

No populated fields in this section.