粉叶秋海棠 fen ye qiu hai tang

Herbs. Rhizomes elongate. Stems absent or very short. Leaves mostly basal; petiole 18-20 cm, glabrous; blade obliquely ovate, asymmetric, 4.5-9 × 10-11 cm, glabrous, venation palmate, base cordate, margin irregularly serrulate, apex acute to shortly caudate. Inflorescences glabrous; bracts ovate, to 5 × 3 cm, glabrous, apex acuminate. Staminate flowers: pedicel 1-2 cm; tepals 4, white to pinkish, outer 2 elliptic, ca. 2 × 1.2 cm, glabrous, inner 2 oblong, ca. 1.5 × 0.6 cm; stamens numerous; filaments ca. 1 mm; anthers obovoid-oblong, ca. 1.5 mm, apex rounded. Pistillate flowers: pedicel ca. 1.5 cm; tepals 5, white to pinkish, unequal, broadly ovate to broadly elliptic; ovary glabrous, 2-loculed; placentae axile, bilamellate; styles 2, free; stigmas 2-cleft, spiraled. Capsule nodding, unequally 3-winged; abaxial wing ligulate, ca. 1.5 × 1.3 cm; lateral wings ca. 7 mm.

Forest understories, on limestone; 700-1500 m. Yunnan (Malipo) [Vietnam].

This species is similar to Begonia howii but differs by its obliquely ovate leaves and the bracts up to 5 cm.