贡山秋海棠 gong shan qiu hai tang

Herbs. Rhizomes moniliform, short, stout. Stems erect, to 90 cm, glabrous or subglabrous. Leaves cauline; stipules caducous, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 5-8 × ca. 5 mm, membranous, apex acuminate; petiole 1.5-3 cm, pubescent; blade falcate or narrowly lanceolate, asymmetric, 8-14 × 2.5-3.8 cm, abaxially pubescent, adaxially sparsely hispidulous, venation palmate-pinnate, base obliquely cordate, margin bidentate, very shallowly lobed, apex long acuminate or long caudate. Inflorescences glabrous, with 2-4(or 5) flowers; peduncle 4-5(-6) cm; bracts ovate or oblong, 8-13 × ca. 5 mm, apex acuminate. Staminate flowers: pedicel 1-1.5(-2) cm; tepals 4, pink, outer 2 broadly ovate, ca. 10 × 9 mm, abaxially villous, inner 2 elliptic, ca. 8 × 4 mm; stamens numerous; filaments free, 0.8-1 mm; anthers obovoid, ca. 1 mm. Pistillate flowers not seen. Capsule ellipsoid or obovoid-oblong, 5-6 mm, glabrous, 2-loculed; placentae axile, bilamellate; unequally 3-winged; abaxial wing falcate, 1.8-2 × ca. 1.2 cm, apex rounded; lateral wings triangular, 5-10 mm. Fl. Aug, fr. Dec.

● Evergreen broad-leaved forests and scrubby vegetation, by streams in valleys; 1400-2000 m. NW Yunnan (Gongshan).

This species is similar to Begonia clavicaulis but differs by its bidentate leaf margin and the 2-loculed ovary.