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Common name: Begonia Family.
Number of genera 3. Number of species ca. 900 (or fewer according to Cronquist, but Goldberg had 1400 spp.).
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule a dehisced fruit, or an intact or entire fruit, or a seed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium; simple; capsule, or berry (rarely); loculicidal capsule; capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; berry indehiscent; berry without central placental mass; without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s); many-seeded; 3-carpellate (1–5); with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; apex not beaked; wall hard, or leathery, or membranaceous, or fleshy; dehiscent, or indehiscent. Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent regularly; at apex; and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp durable; without armature; with wing(s); 1–3(–6)-winged; with wing(s) lateral; without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present, or absent; without lactiform cavity system. Endocarp present, or absent; not separating from exocarp; thin; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; without wing; without operculum; without secretory cavities; without longitudinal ridges. Funiculus short; short without seed bearing hooks (retinacula); not persisting in fruit after seed shed.
Seeds
Aril absent. Seed minute; less than 1 mm long, or 1 to less than 5 mm long; 0.2–2.2 mm long; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves, or without food reserves, or without apparent food reserves; with endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; tight; shiny; surface unsmooth; surface with merged raised features; surface reticulate, or sculptured; without crease or line separating cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle; without notch along margin where cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle tip approach each other; without glands; without bristles; without wings; with collar; with operculum; colored; monochrome; brown (all shades); thin, or crustaceous; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding embryo. Endosperm development nuclear (to becoming cellular later); trace.
Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; completely filling testa (no food reserve), or nearly filling testa (trace or scanty food reserve); at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; miniature; dwarf; lenticular; straight; parallel to seed length; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; tiny; 0.2–0.5 times length of embryo; as wide as hypocotyl-radicle; not concealing hypocotyl-radicle; obliquely incumbent to hypocotyl-radicle; not foliaceous; smooth; with margins separate; basally entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle moderately developed; straight; not thickened.
Distribution
Cosmopolitan. New World, Old World. North America, Middle America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia Major, Asia Minor, southeastern Asia.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
ASOA listed seeds, ISTA listed seeds.
ASOA listed seeds: -- Begonia L. spp. -- Last updated September 2008.
ISTA listed seeds: -- Begonia Semperflorens-Cultorum Group f -- Begonia × semperflorens-cultorum hort. = Begonia Semperflorens-Cultorum Group -- Begonia × tuberhybrida Vossf -- Symbols: aagricultural and vegetable seeds (Table 2A Part 1); ttree and shrub species (Table 2A Part 2); fflower, spice, herb, and medicinal seeds (Table 2A Part 3); wweed seeds. -- Last updated September 2008.
Accepted genera
Begonia L. -- Hillebrandia Oliv. -- Symbegonia Warb. --
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 427. Lange, A. de & F. Bowman. 1999. Seed micromorphology of Neotropical begonias. Smith. Contr. Bot. 90:1–49; Clarke, C.B. 1880. On Indian begonias. J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 18:114–122, t. 1–3.
General references
Corner, E.J.H. 1976. The seeds of Dicots, esp. vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, New York, Cronquist, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants, 1,262 p. Columbia University Press, New York, Gaertner, J. 1788–1805. De fructibus et seminibus plantarum. The Author, Stuttgart, Goldberg, A. 1986 (dicots) and 1989 (monocots). Classification, evolution, and phylogeny of the familes of Dicotyledons. Smithsonian Contr. Bot. 58 for dicots (314 pp.) and 71 for monocots (74 pp.). [Goldberg's illustrations are reproduced from older publications and these should be consulted], Gunn, C.R., J.H. Wiersema, C.A. Ritchie, and J.H. Kirkbride, Jr. 1992 and amendments. Families and genera of Spermatophytes recognized by the Agricultural Research Service. Techn. Bull. U.S.D.A. 1796:1–500, Mabberley, D.J. 1987. The plant-book, 706 p. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182.
Illustrations
Acceptable seed SEMs and fruit. Cronquist has no illustration. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Clarke (1880). Seed illustration(s): Karen, Lange & Bouman (1999) [SEMs]. Embryo illustration(s): Karen. Karen's plate number and taxon (taxa): 129: Begonia megaptera A. DC.(A-B), Hillebrandia sandwicensis Oliver (C-D), Symbegonia sp. (E-F).
• Fruit. 1 of 5. Begonia × angularis Raddi: fruit. • Seed. 2 of 5. Begonia × angularis Raddi: seeds. • Embryo. 3 of 5. Begonia megaptera A. DC.: embryo. • Embryo. 4 of 5. Hillebrandia sandwicensis Oliver: embryo. • Embryo. 5 of 5. Symbegonia sp.: embryo.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘J.H. Kirkbride, Jr., C.R. Gunn, and M.J. Dallwitz. 2000 onwards. Family guide for fruits and seeds: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 12th April 2021. delta-intkey.com’.
