It is a beauty. I found it by the same process. Still haven,t given up on the other.......

Just a thought...has anyone tried calling them and asking?

That is indeed a begonia, Begonia angularis, a begonia from Brazil, named for its angular, ribbed stems. Can get very tall and tends to lean on other plants for support. Blooms white on peduncles reminiscent of other Brazilian thick stem begonias; blooms have been sparse for me in zone 8a. Begonia 'Grey Feather' is a listed hybrid, but may be a species variant; it has red backed leaves and red stems.

LAbegoniac,

to ATP Labegoniac

Skylark, with Labegoniac's ID, here is some info..

http://www.begonias.org/Articl...

http://www.backyardgardener.co...

oho-ho-ho! it was worth the wait! thank you, LAbegoniac!
i see that this is your 1st post - you just HAD to sign up, right? with a question like that :)!
now i found these pics of young plants:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/...
http://begoniahouston.org/skey...
the one at fairchild looks huge by comparison, impressive mature plant then? i just love the thick white veining...
so,
i have another one to ID for you! will open a new thread...am going for a pic...

so, can i import the pics into database then?

Welcome to ATP LA. So happy to have this ID'd.

So still no answer about the original plant tho ? I curious too !

Begonia angularis IS the original plant.

@skylark, yes ... if you are certain the plant is B. angularis you can import the photo to the database.

well, i can't say that i am 100% sure, but probably 95%?
Fairchild conservatory pdf does not list it - but it is incomplete, for sure.
i can't find any pics of a large plant, everything is very small - so venation is not as pronounced.
and young leaves are not as curved is 'mine'. also veins are never so large and so white.
but the description is of large 4' plant. so, i would say it's very-very likely B. angularis.
but i am not a specialist or even a begonia aficionado - i assume LAbegoniac is ;). is that sufficient basis for importing into a database?

You may want to research a bit more...have a look at this site... and at the second link image... it is the leaf size/shape that puzzles.

http://www.brazilplants.com/be...

http://www.brazilplants.com/be...

(4th plant down) http://www.kew.org/science/tro...

i have another pic of it - in the left top corner you can see large leaves. i think it's tacca - which has huge leaves!
so you can see that this begonia leaves are quite gigantic - may be 15"? oh well, i might be there in summer - so will go look at it again.

Skylark,

After looking at as much info as my brain can absorb, I have come to the conclusion that the closest thing i can find to your plant is B angularis. There have been some hybrids, but darn few pictures of them. Also a couple cultivars like Grey Feather and Lucerne.

It has the light green squarish stem and leaf shape but I was unable to find any reference for leaf length. Perhaps it is just a young plant that has not reached mature height (approx 4 feet) or maybe it is pruned to remain in the space allotted.

Perhaps there is an ATP member in neighborhood of Fairchild BG that might be persuaded to look into it?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/... (forgot the link...duh)


Jean

In 1937 the New York Botanical Garden received a plant from Kew Gardens labeled B. acutangularis. After studying the plant they changed its name to B. acutangula. Bessie Buxton thought this plant was a seedling of B. angularis. Chevalier a few years later designated it as B. angularis, Raddi var. alta Hort. Leod. It is a much larger plant than B. angularis, reaching eight feet at maturity. To this day it is considered a hybrid of B. angularis.

http://www.begonias.org/Articl...

jean, thanks for a beautiful link!
yah, i noticed 'gray feather' cultivar, but it has very pale veins.
janet, i just read that article yesterday too ;).

Janet. I meant to bookmark that link last night and then couldn't find it again.

It is an absolutely beautiful set of pictures and seems to be pretty spot on with species/cultivar tags too. You are most welcome, Skylark. I kept running across references and little info, but there was one in Australia. (an EBAY listing)
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ANG...


I finally found a picture from the Royal Botanic in Sidney...I remembered seeing a similar plant there, and it may have been faulty memory as they have Begonia listada also.
http://www.greengardeningcooki...

Jean

My B. angularis is probably 5 ft., but the stem again is flopping so it's hard to measure. Here is a photo of my plant, , the stem (its truly identifying mark), and new seedlings from seed from Brazil (as all species seed from nature they are quite variable), and a leaf, I'll measure one today, but it is quite long. B. angulata which I've grown is somewhat similar, but without the coloration and smaller. Acutangula is not a valid name, nor is angularis var alta (Smithsonian's Begoniaceae, Edition 2). The only valid names for angularis are B. angularis Raddi var. angularis and B. angularis Raddi var. angustifolia Candole, which I've never seen, nor seen pictured. There is also B. angularis Raddi cv. Compta Everett (cultivar) from which springs B. 'Gray Feather.' The seed of the latter are quite variable as well suggesting to me that they too represent the species. I've never seen any hint that B. 'Corallina de Lucerne' (aka 'Lucerna) (B. teuscheri x B. coccinea) has angularis in its background. I see the leaf got downsized in transfer, but it is quite long.

Cool info and pictures. It is so much easier to be sure when you are looking at the actual plant, rather than pictures from a distant location.

Thank you.


I see by the addition of your location that I was mistakenly thinking LA (Los Angeles) rather than Louisiana.