癞叶秋海棠 lai ye qiu hai tang

Begonia bretschneideriana Hemsley.

Herbs, creeping. Rhizomes 5-14 mm in diam. Leaves basal; stipules caducous, ovate, (5-)15-23 mm, membranous, apex cuspidate; petiole 4-13 cm, glabrous to densely brown villous when young; blade sometimes very shallowly peltate, suborbicular, obovate, or broadly ovate, asymmetric, 4-15 × 4.5-21 cm, abaxially glabrous to brown villous, adaxially glabrous, venation palmate, 5-7-veined, base oblique, cordate, margin remotely and minutely serrulate, apex acute or shortly caudate. Inflorescences usually reduced, 1-1.5(-7) cm; bracts ovate, 3.5-15 mm, membranous, margin ciliate. Staminate flowers: pedicel 2-8 mm, glabrous to sparsely villous; tepals 4, white to pink, glabrous, outer 2 abaxially reddish on veins, broadly ovate, 7-26 × 8-29 mm, inner 2 oblong, 5-27 × 2-9 mm; stamens 21-78, free; filaments 0.6-3.8 mm; anthers obovoid to subglobose, 1.1-2.6 mm, apex emarginate. Pistillate flowers: pedicel 4-20 mm; tepals 3, white to pink, glabrous, persistent in fruit, outer 2 abaxially reddish on veins, broadly obovate or suborbicular, 7-18 × 8-18 mm, inner 1 obovate-oblong, ca. 7 × 4 mm; ovary glabrous, 3-loculed; placentae axile, undivided or bilamellate; styles 3, free; stigmas 2-cleft, spiraled. Fruit pendulous, clavate, 1.1-2.2 cm, wingless. Fl. May-Sep, fr. Jun-Oct.

● Semiopen forests or scrubby vegetation, on limestone rocks; 100-800 m. Guangdong, Guangxi.

This is a common species.