Begonia nahangensis
Begonia nahangensis
Species Information
Classification and Distribution
Begonia nahangensis is a lithophytic herb native to northern Vietnam, specifically in Tuyen Quang province, in the Na Hang district. It primarily grows in primary broad-leaved evergreen dry forests on very steep slopes of highly eroded remnant limestone ridges at elevations ranging from 100 to 500 meters above sea level. This species belongs to Sect. Coelocentrum.
Habitat
This species of Begonia is a lithophytic herb, typically found adpressed in crevices of vertical shady cliffs. It is abundant at an elevation of about 400 meters above sea level.
Distribution
Begonia nahangensis is a local endemic species found in limestone areas in the central part of northern Vietnam within Tuyen Quang province.
Characteristics
Begonia nahangensis is a stemless, evergreen, regularly dioecious herb with a thick, stout, creeping, plagiotropic rhizome. The rhizome is greenish to brown, covered by brownish persistent bracts, and has filiform roots. The leaves are arranged in a rosette-like cluster at the apex of the rhizome, adpressed to the ground. They are short petiolate with cylindric petioles. The leaf blades are round to slightly asymmetric, broadly oblique-ovate or oblique-reniform, and have a very shallowly crenulate margin. The upper surface of the leaf blade is dark green with light green palmate areas along the main veins, while the lower surface is violet to purple-violet, deeply irregularly cellulite-scrobiculate, and densely white woolly-villous on the nerves.
Flower Details
The flowers of Begonia nahangensis are monosexual and pedicellate. Staminate flowers have two opposite broadly ovate to almost orbicular white sepals and two opposite white narrowly obovate petals. Pistillate flowers are light olive-green and zygomorphic. They have two sepals and one petal (or none). The sepals are broadly reniform and distinctly broader than long. Styles are three, and the ovaries are inferior.
Etymology
The species name "nahangensis" refers to the area of its origin, Na Hang district in Tuyen Quang province, northern Vietnam.
Similar Species
Begonia nahangensis is closely related to Begonia fimbribracteata but differs in several characteristics, including the densely woolly-villose petioles and abaxial leaf blade surface, glabrous parts of the inflorescence, entire margins of floral bracts and bracteoles, broadly reniform sepals of female flowers, olive green pistillate flowers, and sparsely hairy ovaries with very short rusty-glandular reddish-brown hairs.
References
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Care
Instructions or tips for growing and maintaining Begonia nahangensis.
Photos
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