Begonia acerifolia Kunth, 2022

Moonlight, Peter & Fuentes, Alfredo F., 2022, AN UPDATED CHECKLIST AND KEY TO THE SPECIES OF BOLIVIAN BEGONIA, INCLUDING ONE NEW SPECIES, Edinburgh Journal of Botany 79 (407), pp. 1-66 : 39-40

6.30. Begonia acerifolia Kunth , Nov. Gen. Sp. (quarto ed.) 7: 186, t. 644 (1825).

– Type: Ecuador, [Loja Province], Loxam, 1060 m, A.J.A. Bonpland 3333 (lectotype P [ P00679517 ] designated in: Phytologia 44(4): 246 (1979) by Smith, L.B. & Wasshausen, D.C.). M.C. Tebbitt in Edinburgh J. Bot. 74(2): 221 (2017) .

Begonia erythrocarpa A.DC. , Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. IV(11): 121 (1859). – Type: Bolivia, La Paz Department, Prov. Larecaja , v 1847, H. A. Weddell 4729 (lectotype P [ P01900755 ] designated in: Edinburgh J. Bot. 74(2): 221 (2017) by Tebbitt, M.C.; isolectotypes G-DC ex P, P [ P01900754 ]) .

D.C. Wasshausen et al. in P.M. JØrgensen et al. (eds), Cat. Bolivia, Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 129: 384 (2013); M.C. Tebbitt in Edinburgh J. Bot. 74(2): 221 (2017).

Distribution. Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

Nomenclatural notes. The protologue of Begonia acerifolia Kunth (1825: 186 , pl. 644) does not cite a specimen or a herbarium, so this species does not have a holotype (see McNeill, 2014). Smith & Wasshausen (1979) cited specimens collected by Humboldt and Bonpland and held in Paris herbarium as the ‘holotype’. We are not aware, however, of any unnumbered material of this species in Paris herbarium. The authors did, however, cite a photograph of their ‘holotype’ in the US herbarium, which clearly shows the specimen A.J.A. Bonpland 3333 in Paris herbarium (P00679517), so we can interpret Smith and Wasshausen’s citation as an effective lectotypification of Begonia acerifolia . Smith & Wasshausen (1986) later repeated the same citation. Tebbitt (2017) correctly identified the specimen as A.J.A. Bonpland 3333 but incorrectly cited it as a holotype.

Identification notes. All specimens of Begonia acerifolia we have seen from Bolivia have peltate leaves, although many populations in northern Peru and Ecuador have basifixed leaves ( Tebbitt, 2017). Begonia wollnyi Herzog is the only other caulescent species of Bolivian Begonia that can have peltate leaves, although they are usually basifixed, and this species differs in having three, well-developed wings on its fruit and ovaries (vs two wings reduced to ribs in B. acerifolia ).