- Family: Begoniaceae C.Agardh
- Genus: Begonia L.
Begonia kisuluana Büttner
- Genus: Begonia L.
This species is accepted, and its native range is Nigeria to Uganda and NW. Angola.
[FTEA]
Begoniaceae, Vanessa Plana, Martin J.S. Sands & Henk J. Beentje. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 2006
- Type
- Type: Angola, Arthington Falls near Kisulu, three days journey from San Salvador, Büttner 496 (B, lecto.).
- Habit
- Epiphytic herb or soft-wooded shrub with stems to 1(–2) m long; stems erect, up to 6 mm thick, branched, rooting at the nodes, woody at the base; indumentum of peltate scales with fimbriate margins. Stipules narrowly triangular, 1–2.5 cm long, caducous, boat-shaped, not curved, apex acuminate, hairy on outside.
- Leaves
- Leaves leathery, drying thin, weakly asymmetrical, ovate to elliptic, sometimes narrowly elliptic, 2–12 × 0.8–6.2 cm, base obliquely cordate to rounded or truncate, margin entire, rarely obscurely denticulate towards the apex, apex commonly broadly acute to obtuse, rarely acuminate, glabrescent above and below, with a few scattered lepidote hairs; venation pinnate; petiole 0.4–2.2(–6) cm long.
- Inflorescences
- Female inflorescence with 1–3 flowers, peduncle 1–5 mm long; bracts similar to those in male inflorescence but up to 8 mm long; pedicel to 2 mm long. Inflorescence axillary, a unisexual dichasial cyme. Male inflorescence with up to 15 flowers, peduncle (0.4–)0.8–2.8(–3.5) cm long; each ramification subtended by a pair of opposite bracts 3–7 mm long, smaller in the upper parts of the inflorescence, chartaceous, almost connate; pedicels 0.4–1.2 cm long; bracteoles absent.
- Flowers
- Female flowers: subsessile, tepals 4, free, shape and colour similar to male flowers, the outer 6–12 × 3–5.5 mm, the inner 4–10 × 1.5–3 mm; ovary fusiform, without wings, 3-locular; placentation parietal through less than 40% of the ovary, the rest septal; styles 3, simple at the apex (1 flower observed to have forked style), glabrous, not persistent in fruit; stigma yellow, simple. Male flowers: tepals 4, free, white suffused with pink on the upper half, the outer obovate, 5–8 × 3–5.5 mm, the inner narrowly obovate, 3.5–8 x 1–3 mm; stamens 10–19, filaments fused 0.8–1.5 mm from the base; anthers narrowly ellipsoid to obovoid, 0.8–1.5 mm long, apex obtuse to acute.
- Fruits
- Fruits fleshy, fusiform, often somewhat curved, 1.2–3.5 cm long, 0.3–0.4 cm in diameter, terete in cross section, greenish-yellow, dotted with lenticels, dehiscent by a lateral longitudinal slit.
- Ecology
- Swampy river valleys within forest; altitude not given, presumably around 700–1300 m .
- Conservation
- Least concern (LC); widespread .
- Note
- Although the species is described as possessing simple, unforked styles, a single flower from Katende K2765 has forked styles with a long horseshoe-shaped stigma, almost identical to those in B. eminii. This however, appears to be an aberrant flower; the other flower on the same inflorescence has typical B. kisuluana styles.
- Distribution
- Range: Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa, Angola Flora districts: U2
Native to:
Angola, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Nigeria, Uganda, Zaïre
Begonia kisuluana Büttner appears in other Kew resources:
First published in Verh. Bot. Vereins Prov. Brandenburg 32: 45 (1890)
Accepted by
- Figueiredo, E. & Smith, G.F. (2008). Plants of Angola Strelitzia 22: 1-279. National Botanical Institute, Pretoria.
- Govaerts, R. (1996). World Checklist of Seed Plants 2(1, 2): 1-492. MIM, Deurne.
Literature
Flora of Tropical East Africa
- Wageningen Univ. Papers 2001-2: 124, fig. 12, map (2002).
- F.C.B., Begoniaceae: 22 (1969)
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Flora of Tropical East Africa
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
Kew Backbone Distributions
The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2021. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
© Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone
The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2021. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
© Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0