Begonia eminii Warb.

Begoniaceae, Vanessa Plana, Martin J.S. Sands & Henk J. Beentje. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 2006

Type

Type: Tanzania, Bukoba, Stuhlmann 1453 (B, lecto., chosen by de Wilde).

Habit

Terrestrial or epiphytic, erect to 120 cm high or climbing (fide Vollesen) and to 4 m long; stems succulent, green and/or red, up to 1.2 cm thick, branched, rooting at the nodes, woody at the base; indumentum of peltate scales with fimbriate margins.

Stipules

Stipules narrowly triangular, 2–4.5 cm long, caducous, neither boat-shaped nor curved, apex acuminate, indumentum present on outside, glabrous within.

Leaves

Leaves drying papery, green above, purple or with reddish veins beneath, almost symmetrical, narrowly ovate to ovate, 6.5–22 × 2.5–11 cm, base oblique, deeply cordate, margin entire to obscurely denticulate, apex acute to shortly acuminate, glabrous above, sparsely hairy beneath, denser on venation; venation pinnate; petiole red, 2–13(–17) cm long, densely hairy.

Inflorescences

Female inflorescence with 2–3(–7) flowers, peduncle 1–8 mm long; bracts similar to those in male inflorescence; bracteoles present, ovate, 2–4 mm. Male inflorescence with up to 15 flowers; peduncle 5–15 mm long; bracts opposite, up to 7 mm long, smaller in the upper parts of the inflorescence, chartaceous, almost connate; pedicels up to 4–11 mm. Inflorescence axillary, a unisexual dichasial cyme.

Flowers

Female flowers: sessile, tepals 4, free, shape and colour similar to male flowers, the outer 5–10.5 × 2.5–5 mm, the inner 3–8 × 1.5–2.5 mm; ovary red, fusiform, without wings, 3-locular; placentation septal; styles 3, yellow, forked at the apex, glabrous, not persistent in fruit; stigmatic band yellow, horseshoe-shaped, weakly twisted (1/2 turn). Male flowers:  tepals 4, free, white often tinged with red at the apex or pinkish, the outer elliptic to obovate, 4–12 × 3–6 mm, the inner narrowly obovate, 3–9 × 1.5–3 mm; stamens 7–15, free or fused at the base, anthers oblong, curved inward, 1–2 mm long, apex obtuse.

Fruits

Fruits pendulous when mature, red, fleshy, fusiform, 2–5 cm long, terete in cross section, straight, dehiscent by 1 or more lateral longitudinal slits.

Ecology

Terrestrial or on living trees, logs or rocks in moist forest, often near streams, also in water-logged forest; 1000–1500 m.

Conservation

Least concern (LC); widespread.

Distribution

Flora districts: U2 U4 K5 T1 Range: Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Bioko, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa, Burundi, Sudan, Angola