Species
B. polypetala
Photos
2 photos
Identity
- Genus
- Begonia
- Name
- B. polypetala
- Author
- A. de Candolle, Garden
- Publication Date
- 1878
- Habitat
- Andes of Peru, Froebel. Endemic.
- Country
- Peru
- Region
- America
- Section
- Eupetalum
- Plant Type
- Tuberous
- Reference
- Garden :531. 1878.; JGSL9/08
- Article References
- The Garden, v. 14, 1878
Plant
- Description
- Flora of Peru. by J. Francis Macbride. Chicago, Ill. Field Museum of Natural History, [1941] v.13: pt.4: no.1 (1941): Page 181- 202 http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/19800 Herb, stemless with a tuberous base. Leaves very broadly ovate or suborbicular, acute, deeply cordate, to 25 cm. long, 20 cm. broad, palmately 7-nerved with very short obtuse lobes, irregularly serrate, pubescent above, white-lanate beneath, petioles 18-20 cm. long, white-lanate. Peduncle 40-42 cm. long, white-lanate, 2-flowered. Bracts persistent, in pairs, elliptic, acute, 18-20 mm. long, entire. Pedicels 20-22 mm. long. Staminate tepals 9-10, narrowly elliptic, acute, 25-30 mm. long, red. Stamens numerous, anthers oblong, shorter than the filaments, the connective produced, acute. Pistillate tepals 9, 20 mm. long, deep red, tomentose outside. Styles 3, branched, placentae bilamellate, ovuliferous on all sides. Capsule tomentose, unequally 3-winged with one very large and ascending. F. M. Neg. 24202.; The Garden, v. 14, 1878 B. polypetala: A very distinct species of the section Huszia, (Prodr. XV., pars 2, p. 283), next to B. pleiopetala, for the characters, with splendid red flowers as in B. cinnabarina, and B. Veitchii. Root tuberous. Scape 40-42 cm. high, covered with a soft whitish tomentum. Petioles 18-20 cent. long, with soft and white hairs as the scape. Limbs ovato-pointed, cordiform, irregularly toothed, 25 cm. long and 20 broad, 7-ribbed, with nerves bifid, hairy above, white and woolly underneath. Flowers emerging out of two opposite elliptic concave bracts 18-20 mm. long, Pedicels of the male flowers 20-22 mm. long, hoary and reddish. Sepals two, ovato-elliptic, 18 mm. long, smooth and reddish inside, tomentose and rather white outside. Petals 9-10, of a fine red color, smooth, except outside on the middle; the external one ovato-oblong, pointed, 2 ½ -3 cm. long, 1½ broad; the internal somewhat shorter and narrower. Anthers shorter than the filaments, with a short point at the top. Bract of the female flower elliptic, 15 mml. long, reddish, somewhat white and hoary outside. Ovary tomentose, 3-winged, with one wing larger, ascendant. Lobes 9, of an intense red color, smooth inside, tomentose outside, the external ones ovato-acute, 2 cm. long, 6 mm. broad, the internal narrower. Style 3, ramose, with tortuous branches. Placentas 3, bipartite, bearing ovules on the whole surface. - Alph. de Candolle We have received from M. Otto Froebel, of Zurich, flowers of the annexed brilliant and very distinct Begonia, introduced by Messrs. Froebel, and of which the above description has been written by M. de Candolle, of Geneva. The plant comes from the Andes of northern Peru. It is a species which in Europe grows and flowers in the winter, and will, therefore, be more welcome and more useful than one of the many kinds which are so much employed in summer. The bulbs begin to grow in the month of August, and the first flowers open in October. They open in succession until the month of January, and are during that time the most beautiful ornaments of the temperate house. One flower which was sent to us much resembled, even after its long journey from Switzerland, a blossom of the brilliant Anemone fulgens. Already as many as twelve such flowers had been seen on one plant at the same time in M. Froebel's nursery. As yet the plant has not been sufficiently multiplied to allow its being offered in commerce. We purpose in due time issuing a colored illustration of it, which will give a fair idea of a plant which is one of the best and most interesting of recent novelties.
Lineage
4 descendants
Parents
No parentage recorded.
Descendants
4 recorded children
As female parent
2
Male parent: B. ‘Octopetala Rosea’
Male parent: B. ‘Octopetala Semi-Plena’
As male parent
2
Female parent: B. froebelii
Female parent: B. froebelii
Culture
No populated fields in this section.