Begonia acetosella - Sorrel Begonia

Sorrel Begonia is dioecious herb, erect, up to 2 m tall. Stems are branching twice or more. Leaves have stipules falling off, lanceshaped, 1-1.3 x about 3.5 mm; leaf-stalk 2.7 cm, blade oblong, ovate-lanceshaped, or oblong-lanceshaped, asymmetric, 10-14 x 3-4.5 cm, hairless, nearly hairless, or velvet-hairy, venation palmate-pinnate, 5- to 7-veined, base obliquely heart-shaped, margin undivided, shallowly and remotely sawtoothed, tip tapering or pointed. Inflorescences are much reduced; bracts ovate-lanceshaped, 1-1.5 cm, tip tapering. Male flowers: flower-stalk about 1.2 cm; tepals 4, white or pinkish, hairless, outer 2 obovate to oblate, about 1.2 x 1 cm, inner 2 lanceshaped to oblong, 13-15 x about 7 mm; stamens numerous. Female flowers: flower-stalks 5-10 mm; ovary obovoid, hairless, (3 or)4-loculed; placentae axile, bilamellate; tepals 4, white or pinkish, hairless, outer 2 oblate-round, about 1 x 1 cm, inner 2 oblong, about 10 x 7 mm; styles (3 or)4, fused at base; stigmas 2-cleft, spiraled. Fruit is berrylike, drooping, (3 or)4-horned. Sorrel Begonia is found in moist shaded environments in evergreen broad-leaved forests, at altitudes of 500-1800 m, in China South-Central, East Himalaya, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Tibet, Vietnam. Flowering: April-May.