B. heracleifolia var. nigricans

Curtis's botanical magazine, v. 83 = ser. 3, v. 13, 1857 B heracleifolia var nigricans: This is a very handsome variety, but assuredly nothing more, of the well-known Begonia heracleifolia, and justly recorded as such by our friend Dr. Klotzsch, in his beautiful work on the Begoniaceae above quoted; yet it continues to be dispersed as a species, sometimes under the name of B. punctata, sometimes under that of nigricans. It is a misfortune when a genus of plants becomes a favorite, as is just now the case with that under consideration, with cultivators: for then it becomes an object with horticulturists and nurserymen to multiply the species in all manner of ways; till at length, as with Cape Heaths, Cape Geraniaceae, Calceolaria, etc. etc., to name them becomes a hopeless task. The present species is a native of Mexico; and the variety a very handsome one: the leaves being green, blotched with a deeper and almost black tint at the margins of the lobes: the petioles, scapes, and ramifications of the flower-stalks are tinged with red: the bracts are pale green, the petals nearly white, and the broad wing of the fruit is rose colored. It flowers in winter. Description: Rhizome short, thick, horizontal. Stems none. Leafstalk three to five inches long, pale yellow-green tinged with red, hispid with patent hairs: at the base is a pair of broad triangular stipules. Leaves broad-cordate, with nearly equal sides, deeply palmate, with usually seven lobes which are broadly lanceolate, acuminate, sinuato-incised, subserrate, ciliated; beneath slightly hairy, of a pale purplish-green; above deep green, much darker almost black at the margins. Scapes erect, much longer than the leaves, terete, hispid, bearing a moderately large panicle or compound raceme. Bracts large, ovate, horizontally patent, pale green, membranaceous. Pedicels slender, glabrous. Male flowers dipetalous; the petals white, suborbicular, concave. Stamens several, erect. Filaments short. Anthers elongated, linear-cuneate. Female flowers dipetalous: the petals nearly oval, also white. Fruit green, dotted: the wings rose-color: two of them very short: the third elongated, very large, obscurely striated.
Pests Diseases

• Classification: Species
• Plant Type: Rhizomatous
• Botanical Section: Gireoudia
• Origin: America, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador
• Originator: W. J. Hooker, Bot. Mag.
• Date of Origin: 1844