Flora of North America species comparison

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Begonia

begonia
Habit Plants sometimes rhizomatous [sometimes tuberous].
Stems

erect or ascending [climbing], reddish [green or brown], simple or branched.
Capsules

[2–]3[–5+]-locular.
Cymes

[1–]few[–many]-flowered.
x

= 9.

Begonia
Distribution
map from USDA
Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; s Asia; Africa; Indian Ocean Islands; pantropical [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species ca. 1400 (2 in the flora).

Begonia is one of the larger herbaceous pantropical genera. Begonias are widely cultivated as ornamental plants.

Begonia cucullata is usually more robust than B. hirtella. The number of flowers per cyme was impossible to establish from the available herbarium specimens, because staminate flowers fall early. In general, B. cucullata appears to have more flowers than B. hirtella. Flowers of Begonia often are described as having tepals, as done here; the staminate flowers sometimes may be described as having sepals and petals, as is the case for the sister genus Hillebrandia. Capsules were measured excluding the wings.

Etymology: For Michel Bégon, 1638 – 1710 French governor of Haiti and patron of botany

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Parent taxa Begoniaceae
Subordinate taxa
B. hirtella
Key
1. Perennials, usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely hairy; leaf blades asymmetric, ovate to ± reniform, base cuneate on shorter side, usually rounded on longer one1. Begonia cucullata
→ 1
1. Annuals, ± densely brownish-villous; leaf blades strongly asymmetric, ± ovate to ± cordate, base rounded to shallowly cordate on shorter side, rounded to cordate on longer one.
B. hirtella
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1056. (1753): Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 475. 1754.
Source FNA vol. 6, p. 62. Treatment author: Luc Brouillet.
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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