Begonia guttapila D.C.Thomas & Ardi in Edinburgh J. Bot. 66(2): 234. 2009

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Content

Begonia Section

  • Petermannia

Diagnosis

  • Ab aliis speciebus celebicis sectionis Petermanniae in ovariis pilis insignibus basi bulboso habenti differt. - Type: Cultivated at Bali Botanic Garden from vegetative material collected in the wild (Indonesia, Sulawesi, Sulawesi Selatan, LuwuDistrict, Latimojong Mountains, Ranteballa village, 03°21'33S, 120°07'33E, 1359 m), 16 v 2008, D.C. Thomas & W.H. Ardi 08-81 (holo E; iso BO). (Thomas, D.C., Ardi, W.H., Hartutiningsih & Hughes, M. 2009: Two new species of Begonia (Begoniaceae) from South Sulawesi, Indonesia. – Edinburgh Journal of Botany 66(2): 229-238)

Description

  • Perennial, monoecious herb, stems first erect, but soon arching over and trailing-scrambling, to c.60 cm tall, with a sparse indumentum of microscopic, glandular hairs on all above-ground vegetative parts and a very sparse indumentum of multicellular hairs on the stems and the abaxial lamina surface or multicellular hairs absent.

    Stems branched; internodes c.2-16.5 cm long.

    Leaves alternate; stipules 14-18 × 4-6 mm, elliptic to oblong, with abaxially prominent midrib that projects shortly at the apex, caducous; petioles 1.5-5.2 cm long; lamina basifixed, 5-13 × 2.5-6 cm, very asymmetric, narrowly elliptic, elliptic, narrowly ovate or ovate, base cordate, lobes not overlapping, apex acuminate, margin double serrate, the teeth not or only slightly bristle-pointed, adaxial surface dark green and abaxial surface pale green, venation palmate-pinnate.

    Inflorescences: female inflorescences solitary, composed of 1-2 two-flowered partial inflorescences, subtending leaves foliose, peduncles c.2 mm long, bracts (subtending the pedicels) c.6-7 × 3-4 mm, narrowly ovate to narrowly elliptic; male inflorescences solitary, subtending leaves foliose, peduncles 6-9 mm, cymose-subumbellate with one dichotomous branching at the base, each of the two resulting branches branching once dichasially, the lateral branches of the dichasia branching up to three times monochasially, bracts (subtending the pedicels) c.1.5-6 × 1-2 mm, elliptic to oblong.

    Male flowers: pedicels 8-12 mm long, sparsely, microscopically, glandular hairy; tepals 2, white, 8-10 × 9-11 mm, broadly ovate to suborbicular, base slightly cordate or with convex margins, apex rounded, abaxially sparsely, microscopically, glandular hairy; androecium of c.38-46 stamens, yellow, filaments c.0.4-1.6 mm long, slightly fused at the very base, anthers c.0.7-1.2 mm long, obovate to oblong, dehiscing through unilaterally positioned slits > 1/2 as long as the anther, connective not projecting.

    Female flowers: pedicels 1-2 mm, sparsely, microscopically, glandular hairy; tepals 5, subequal, 10-17 × 5-9 mm, elliptic to obovate, white or pale pink, abaxially sparsely,microscopically, glandular hairy; ovary 8-12 × 12-15 mm, ellipsoid, locules 3, placentation axile, placentae bilamellate, wings 3, not developed in the basal part of the ovary, but expanding distally after c.1/3-1/2 of the ovary?s length, equal, triangular, with concave margin at the base, widest at the truncate apex, microscopically, glandular hairy, the ovary surface between the wings hairy with c.0.6-2 mm long, multicellular trichomes with broad, bulbous base narrowing into a fine extended tip, style fused at the base, 3-branched, each stylodium bifurcate in the stigmatic region, stigmatic surface a spirally twisted papillose band, yellow.

    Fruits on stout, c.1-2 mm long, microscopically, glandular hairy pedicels; capsule ellipsoid, 12-15 × 5-9 mm (excluding the wings), fleshy and indehiscent, red, wings thickened and hardened, 6-9 mm wide at the widest point (at the apex), wing shape and indumentum as for ovary. Seeds ellipsoidal, c.0.3-0.4 mm long, collar cells c.1/2-2/3 of the length of the seed. (Thomas, D.C., Ardi, W.H., Hartutiningsih & Hughes, M. 2009: Two new species of Begonia (Begoniaceae) from South Sulawesi, Indonesia. – Edinburgh Journal of Botany 66(2): 229-238)

Conservation

  • Proposed IUCN conservation category: VU D2. This species is only known from one collection on the eastern border of the Latimojong Forest Reserve. All available Begonia specimens from A, B, BM, BO, CEB, E, K, L and SING have been consulted, and hence it must be assumed, at least until more intensive collecting on Sulawesi may reveal otherwise, that this species has a very restricted range. Therefore, it is "prone to the effects of human activities or stochastic events within a very short time period in an uncertain future" (IUCN, 2001). (Thomas, D.C., Ardi, W.H., Hartutiningsih & Hughes, M. 2009: Two new species of Begonia (Begoniaceae) from South Sulawesi, Indonesia. – Edinburgh Journal of Botany 66(2): 229-238)

Distribution

Asia-Tropical: Sulawesi (Sulawesi endemic)
Endemic to Indonesia, Sulawesi, South Sulawesi.

See specimen tab for map of point distribution data of georeferenced specimens.

Etymology

  • The epithet "guttapila" is a compound of gutta (Latin - a drop of fluid) and pilus (Latin - hair). It refers to the very unusual hairs on the ovaries and fruits of this species, which, with their bulbous base narrowing into a fine extended tip resemble stylised drops of water.

Notes

  • The epithet "guttapila" is a compound of gutta (Latin - a drop of fluid) and pilus (Latin - hair). It refers to the very unusual hairs on the ovaries and fruits of this species, which, with their bulbous base narrowing into a fine extended tip resemble stylised drops of water. The fruits of this species are unusual in Begonia sect. Petermannia not only because of their indumentum, but also because of their fleshy pericarp. In contrast to the dry, thin-walled capsules predominantly found in this section, Begonia guttapila exhibits red, fleshy and apparently indehiscent fruits, which have thickened, relatively hard wings. These characters might be adaptations to zoochory, but as for the other fleshy-fruited species of Begonia in SE Asia, observations of animal dispersal are lacking (Lange & Bouman, 1999; Tebbitt et al., 2006), and the dispersal of the seeds of this species might be mainly by rain-wash from the decomposing fruit. (Thomas, D.C., Ardi, W.H., Hartutiningsih & Hughes, M. 2009: Two new species of Begonia (Begoniaceae) from South Sulawesi, Indonesia. – Edinburgh Journal of Botany 66(2): 229-238)

Molecular Systematics

  • GenBank
  • see Thomas et al., 2012 (Thomas, D.C., Hughes, M., Phutthai, T., Ardi, W.H., Rajbhandary, S., Rubite, R., Twyford, A.D. & Richardson, J.E. 2012: West to east dispersal and subsequent rapid diversification of the mega-diverse genus Begonia (Begoniaceae) in the Malesian archipelago. – Journal of Biogeography 39: 98-113)
  • see Thomas et al., 2011 (Thomas, D.C., Hughes, M., Phutthai, T., Rajbhandary, S., Rubite, R., Ardi, W.H. & Richardson, J.E. 2011: A non-coding plastid DNA phylogeny of Asian Begonia(Begoniaceae): Evidence for morphological homoplasy and sectional polyphyly. – Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 60: 428-444)