Begonia Dimorpha

photo credit to Abu Hasan Zaleha

CHARACTERISTICS:

The foliage appears to have corrugated features with bold formation of white bumps that appears to be very similar like a maculata species characteristics however this one is very bold in showing off it's features, also there is a red central dot appearing from the petiole attachment that adds more brilliant color features on this particular begonia.

Identifying this particular begonia is quite a challenge as there are not many reference to this with any photo image to verify its description. Native to Borneo, often comes with many different varieties of this kind -  the very similar one has the same features but are with pink dots - this one is identified as Begonia Malachosticta.

There are some varieties which is yet to be specifically identified especially like this one (pic above) where the foliage has white border with fancy edges. It may or may not morph as it gets matures or perhaps different conditions may trigger such features. Again - it may be a new variant.
Not much studies or conclusive research had been done so far for accurate information for this kind.

Just my own personal opinion :

I highly doubt that this one is cultivated as an ornament plant rather most of these plants are often poached from the wild and sold internally within the local plant community. The sad part of development where deforestation and massive logging had almost wiped out most of the species of which many if not all are already lost or extinct in the wild.

Of course there is a long history of this ongoing battle between conservationist and nature lovers vs Industrial Giants with super powers which can do great wonders in silencing - if not alternating the truth. Down the line another 2-3 decades time - all wildlife is lost and visually you would only going to see most of them in the hands of  collectors and conservationist.

And so the moral of the story is to see the big picture whether if these plants were sold in meager few dollars among the natives  and the plant get to live another day than been flatten out by bulldozers for agricultural or industrial purposes.

I just hope nothing is extinct yet.

 Begonia Common Names and Images

Do click on the Link Above ☝

Here is the link where I had put together a list of all the begonias that I had come across. A database of all the different types & their characteristics. Please click on the link on the title above for the post.