In Search of Begonia Lehmannii

The second morning of our trek through Finca Montezuma in Tatama me and Jaime got a head start around 4am since it was a long way up from where we were staying at.  I remember how much it was raining, how dark it was, and how I still managed to stop here and there to stare at plants I happened to catch a glimpse of through the lights of our flashlights and head lamps...I know I sort of have a problem.

The whole reason I was here and what made me leave America was my personal quest for this unique begonia that was poorly understood at the time.  My goal in that mountain was to record as much data as I could to better understand the plant before any attempts of cultivation were made which only took a few days.  Close to 7:00 am we were half way up the mountain and began to see a dramatic change in folia and climate conditions where the elusive plant was supposedly found.  Shortly after noticing the foliage on certain gesneriads being more darker colored there it was...just growing so gracefully on the edge of a slope. I finally found the begonia that I had wanted to see for so many years.




When you look at the begonia it's almost surreal to think a natural plant can have almost black colored foliage but it's as real as the soft fuzzy foliage it grows.  Surprisingly this begonia was abundant in the mid and higher elevation in the intermediate climate zone with varying colors of foliage depending on the climate or lighting conditions.

The darker colored form tends to be more common in the higher altitude where temperatures tend to be a little more cooler and in heavy shade.


darker colored begonia elevation record



dark colored population

Even from a distance you can easily spot the dark colored begonia with it's heavy contrast to the surrounding foliage and neon yellow like blooms.  Eventually after observing several plants me and Jaime noticed a few time the hummingbirds were the only organisms feeding on these plants and I'm pretty sure I know why.  When you compare the begonia to other species you'll see that this one has evolved dramatically in the sense that it closely mimics gesineriads as opposed to looking similar like other species with typical characteristics.  It is not the first time it has been recorded of a begonia similar to lehmanii going through such adaptations but most have been recorded in Southern Asia where the begonia's main pollinators are moths and butterflies.  




In the mid elevation point which is 6500 ft on Finca Montezuma the lehmannii's foliage begin to lighten up in color where you have a mix of both dark, orange, and green.  This I attribute to the amount of sunlight that is more abundant on that accessible side of the mountain and surprisingly not often documented.  It was kind of intriguing to see the bicolor patterns on the foliage as you descend down the mountain and see them gradually lose all colors until they are only just green.  


bicolored begonia lehmannii

Once you get to the lower end of their elevation range all the begonias here are just green.  I thought maybe the lighting here was the main factor but it seemed to not be the case as I saw them growing in all sorts of light levels and were all green regardless.




Jaime photographing the normal green form of lehmannii


After taking extensive notes on the varying conditions that the begonias were growing in the next step was to figure out the plant's reproduction cycle which ended up being quite simple and similar to many other begonia species.  I noticed how the broken leaves and stem cuttings can take quite well to being broken off and establishing themselves onto a suitable substrate such as the clay/betonite like substrate Tatama is comprised of or a patch of moss.  Regardless, it was good to have a solid journal full of notes and observations to better understand this begonia which was confused for a columnea gesneriad for such a long time.  There are a few old papers archived about past expeditions of this rare and unique begonia but all are just about outdated and only until recently after the latest paper on this plant was created now old notes and hypothesis' were being analyzed and compared to current data findings and finally updated.


New roots forming at the base of a broken leaf 





Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing your travels and observations. I very much appreciate learning more lehmanii, including the reference to bentonite clay (which may indicate a good option of the ex situ growing). Best of all is to hear you found the species growing abundantly.
    Best regards,
    Randy Montes Kerr

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