Begonia madulidii Rubite, C. I Peng & C. W. Lin. A, B. Habit 2018, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Rubite, Rosario R.
name: Peng, Ching-I
name: Chung, Kuo-Fang
name: Lin, Che-Wei
name: Evangelista, Luisito T.
name: Tandang, Danilo N.
name: Callado, John Rey C.
name: Hughes, Mark
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Tracheophyta
Magnoliopsida
Cucurbitales
Begoniaceae
Begonia
Begonia madulidii

description: 3. Begonia madulidii Rubite, C.I Peng & C.W. Lin, sp. nov. (Figs. 5 & 6).   
 Type:— PHILIPPINES. Luzon: Camarines Sur, Sangay, on steep rocky slope in roadside disturbed broadleaf forest, elevation ca. 60 m, 13º29’29”N, 123º37’35”E, 22 May 2006, R. Rubite 290 with Luisito T. Evangelista, Chien-I Huang and Tsui-Ya Liu (holotype PNH, isotype HAST).   
 Monoecious rhizomatous herb. Rhizome creeping, multibranched, pale green, to 20 cm or longer, 0.8 − 1.5 mm thick, glabrous, internodes congested or sometimes to 1 cm long. Stipules persistent, pale green, widely ovate-triangular, 15–25 mm long, 15–20 mm wide, herbaceous, strongly keeled, few fleshy pale green hairs fused into at the base of the keel, glabrous, margin entire, apex aristate, arista ca. 3 mm long. Leaves alternate, petiole terete, pale green, 9 − 31.5 cm long, 3 − 8 mm thick, very sparsely erect velutinous, hairs pale green, sometimes with few fleshy pale green hairs at base of petiole (connected with keel of stipule); leaf blade asymmetric, oblique, very widely ovate, 11.5 − 21.5 cm long, 9.5–18 cm wide, broad side 6.3–11.5 cm wide, basal lobes cordate, 4.4–7 cm long, midrib 6.8–14 cm long, apex acuminate, margin denticulate and distantly dentate, much protruded angle at end of primary veins and lateral veins, lined with puberulous, hairs white; leaf thickly chartaceous, adaxially bright green, glabrous; abaxially pale green, sparsely erect velutinous on all veins; venation basally ca. 9–palmate, midrib distinct, ca. 3 secondary veins on each side, other primary veins branching dichotomously or nearly so, tertiary veins reticulate. Inflorescence axillary, bisexual, cymosely branching panicle 26–40 cm long, peduncle 20–33 cm long, dichasial cymes arising directly from rhizome, branched 3–5 times, erect or ascending, pale green, glabrous; protandrous. Bracts white to pale creamy green or pinkish toward to basal, hyaline, deciduous, glabrous, those at basal node of inflorescence very widely ovate to rhombus, boat-shaped, ca. 10 mm long, 12 mm wide, apex mucronate apiculate, margin entire; bracts at summit of inflorescence ca. 4.5 mm long, 4 mm wide. Staminate flower: pedicel 0.9–2.3 cm long, glabrous; tepals 4, white to pink, glabrous; outer 2 widely obovate to suborbicular, 1–1.4 cm long, 1.1–1.5 cm wide; inner 2 narrowly obovate to oblanceolate, 0.9–1 cm long, 0.3–0.5 cm wide, apex rounded; androecium sub-actinomorphic, ca. 0.4 cm across; stamens yellow, 26–35; filaments free at base; anthers widely obovate, ca. 0.8 mm long, 2-locular, apex rounded to truncate, subequal at filaments. Pistillate flower: pedicel 1.5–2 cm long, glabrous; tepals 5, white to pinkish, outer 2 widely obovate to suborbicular, 0.9–1.4 cm long, 0.8–1.3 cm wide, glabrous; inner 3 oblanceolate to obovate, 0.9–1.4 cm long, 0.3–1 cm wide, apex obtuse or rounded; ovary creamy green to pinkish, body trigonous-ellipsoid, 4–6 mm long, 3–4 mm thick (wings excluded), glabrous; 3-winged, unequal, wings 6–9 mm long, lateral wings narrower, narrowly crescent-shaped, 0.7–2 mm wide, abaxial wing much protruded, crescent-shaped, slightly cordate at proximal, cuneate or slightly truncate at distal, 4–7 mm wide, margin entire; ovary 3-locular, placenta bilamellate; styles 3, nearly free (sometimes with very shortly fused) at base, yellow, ca. 3 mm long, stigma spirally twisted. Capsule pendent, pedicel 1.5–2.3cm long, tepals deciduous; body trigonous-ellipsoid, ca. 6 mm long, 4–5 mm thick (wings excluded), greenish or reddish when fresh; wings unequal, 8–10 mm long; lateral wings 1.5–2.5 mm wide, abaxial wing 5–7.5 mm wide.   
 Etymology:— The specific epithet is named in honor of Dr. Domingo A. Madulid, former Curator of the Philippine National Herbarium and a well-known Filipino botanist whose interests span from taxonomy of angiosperms, floristics, ethnobotany, conservation to historical botany.   
 Distribution and habitat:— Begonia madulidii is endemic to Camarines Sur Province in southeastern Luzon. It grows on low vertical cliffs face or steep exposed slopes of lowland forest.   
 Notes:— Begonia madulidii is similar to Begonia fenicis Merrill (1908: 421) in being a robust lithophytic species with pure pale green leaves glabrous on the upper side, sparsely velutinous on lower surface and petiole, 4-tepaled staminate flower and 5-tepaled pistillate flower. But the new species differs from B. fenicis in being an entirely green plant (vs. at least reddish rhizomes, petioles and inflorescences); in having leaf margins with protruded irregular angles (vs. nearly circular in the contour), venation that is basally ca. 9 (vs. ca. 11) palmate, boat shaped bracts (vs. reflexed). B. fenicis is known from Batanes Islands in northernmost of Philippines, Taiwan and southern Ryukyus, whereas B. madulidii occurs only in a small area in southeastern Luzon about 783 km apart. This species was sampled in the biogeographic study of Hughes et al. (2015) as Begonia sp 4, where it appears as sister to Begonia acuminatissima Merrill (1912: 395) from Mindanao.
description: Published as part of Rubite, Rosario R., Peng, Ching-I, Chung, Kuo-Fang, Lin, Che-Wei, Evangelista, Luisito T., Tandang, Danilo N., Callado, John Rey C. & Hughes, Mark, 2018, Three new species of Begonia (section Baryandra, Begoniaceae) from Luzon Island, the Philippines, pp. 201-212 in Phytotaxa 347 (3) on pages 207-210, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.347.3.1, http://zenodo.org/record/13707879