B. aptera subsp. aptera

Culture

Endangered Status

Least Concern

Original Botanical Description or Link to

Monoecious, erect branched herb to 2 m tall, lacking rhizomes, stems fleshy, dull red, glabrous, 0.4-1.2 cm diam. ribbed (when dry) internodes 7-18 cm long. Stipules caducous, ovate to narrowly lanceolate, 0.8-2 × 0.2-0.45 cm, apex setose, elsewhere glabrous. Leaves: petioles 2.5-16.5 cm long, 1-3 mm diam. (when dry) glabrous, joining lamina at a transverse angle; lamina green on both surfaces, beneath paler, both surfaces glabrous, or below with very sparse microscopic glandular hairs in basal portion, asymmetric, broadly elliptic, 10-22 × 4-14 cm, ape× acute to acuminate, basal sinus cordate, 1-3 cm deep, basal lobes almost equal, overlapping, inner lobe 4-9.5 mm long, margin remotely short and somewhat irregularly bidentate, larger teeth angular, smaller teeth serrate, veins 6-7, palmate. Inflorescences axillary, a 2-3-branched dichasium, with up to 20 flowers, bearing male and female flowers synchronously on same inflorescence; peduncles ca. 1 cm long, glabrous; bracts caducous, narrowly ovate, 4-6 × 2.5 mm; bracteoles absent. Pedicels: those of male flowers with sparse microscopic glandular hairs, 6-7 mm long, those of female flowers glabrous, ca. 5 mm long. Male flowers: perianth segments white to pale pink, 4, outer pair broadly ovate to elliptic, concave, with very sparsely microscopic glandular hairs, 4-8 × 3-5 mm, apex rounded, inner pair broadly ovate to elliptic, glabrous, 3-8.5 × 2.8-4.2 mm, apex rounded; stamens 25-50, filaments 1-1.5 mm long, those in center slightly longer than the outer ones, fused at base, anthers wedge-shaped, 1.5-2 mm long, connective projecting ca. 0.2 mm, apex rounded, dehiscing via longitudinal slits along sides of anther. Female flowers: perianth segments white to pale pink, 6, broadly ovate to elliptic, subequal, 3.1-10 × 2.2-6 mm, pubescence as in male flowers; ovary fleshy, subglobose, 3-lobed, ca. 5 × 6.5 mm, with sparse microscopic glandular hairs, lobes with rounded riblike to obtuse-triangular wings to 1 mm long along center of each locule, 3-locular, placentation axile, placentas bifid, bearing ovules on both surfaces of placental branches; styles 3, caducous, 2.4-4 mm long, free or shortly fused at base, bifid from halfway, branches erect, stigmatic papillae broad, once or twice spirally twisted. Infructescences 1-10-fruited; fruiting pedicels 0.5-1 cm long; fruit fleshy, green becoming red, subglobose, to ca. 1 × 1.2 cm, glabrous or with sparse microscopic hairs as on ovary, locules with persistent wartlike remnants of wings when dry. (Tebbitt, M.C., Taxonomy of Begonia longifolia Blume (Begoniaceae) and Related Species in Brittonia 55(1). 2003)