Abstract
BackgroundThe spectacular karst limestone landscape in Guangxi harbors high-level diversity and endemism of Begonia species, especially those of sect. Coelocentrum. In continuation of our studies in this area, we report the discovery of two attractive new species from southwestern Guangxi: Begonia longgangensis and B. ferox.ResultsBegonia longgangensis resembles B. liuyanii, also from Longgang Nature Reserve, in the broadly ovate to suborbicular leaf blade, differing by the much smaller leaves, subglabrous leaf surface, pink flowers, dichasial cymes and the remarkably long stolons sent out from rhizomes. Unexpectedly, both diploid (2n = 30) and triploid counts (2n = 45) were observed in plants collected from the type locality. Begonia ferox probably has the most prominent bullate leaves for the genus. In this aspect, it is similar to B. nahangensis reported from northern Vietnam recently, but is readily distinguishable by the ovate, chartaceous leaves with an acuminate apex; tomentose peduncle not exceeding petioles; and the much larger stature in vegetative parts. A diploid count of 2n = 30 was determined for this unique new species.ConclusionsAll available data support the recognition of the two new species. Begonia longgangensis has remarkably long stolons and B. ferox is characterized by the prominent bullate leaves. Line drawings, color plates and comparisons are provided to aid in identification of the novelties.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1999-3110-54-44) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The spectacular karst limestone landscape in Guangxi harbors high-level diversity and endemism of Begonia species, especially those of sect
In continuation of our studies of Chinese Begonia, we report the discovery of two additional new species, B. longgangensis and B. ferox, from limestone karsts in southwestern Guangxi
Coelocentrum that we studied cytologically uniformly had the chromosome number of 2n = 30 (Peng et al, 2012), of which seven were known to have bimodal karyotypes with two longer metacentric chromosomes in the chromosome complement
Summary
Begonia longgangensis resembles B. liuyanii, from Longgang Nature Reserve, in the broadly ovate to suborbicular leaf blade, differing by the much smaller leaves, subglabrous leaf surface, pink flowers, dichasial cymes and the remarkably long stolons sent out from rhizomes. Both diploid (2n = 30) and triploid counts (2n = 45) were observed in plants collected from the type locality. Begonia ferox probably has the most prominent bullate leaves for the genus In this aspect, it is similar to B. nahangensis reported from northern Vietnam recently, but is readily distinguishable by the ovate, chartaceous leaves with an acuminate apex; tomentose peduncle not exceeding petioles; and the much larger stature in vegetative parts.
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