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Begonia acetosa; photograph Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons CC0Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Begonia acetosa Vell.

Ruby begonia

Begoniaceae · Brazil Southeast · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

No habitat climate
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Begonia acetosa, photograph Shijan Kaakkara, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsBegonia acetosa, photograph Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsBegonia acetosa, photograph David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsBegonia acetosa, photograph David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsBegonia acetosa, photograph Raffi Kojian, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsBegonia acetosa, photograph Raffi Kojian, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 8 photographs ›

Summary

Begonia acetosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Begoniaceae, native to southeastern Brazil. It is used to create new begonia hybrids due to its attractive foliage. Begonia acetosa has been cultivated in the United States since 1946, when Mulford B. Foster introduced the species from forested mountains near Rio de Janeiro. It was first described in 1831 by José Mariano de Conceição Vellozo. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Begonia acetosa", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Begonia

Begonia is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family Begoniaceae. The genus contains more than 2,000 different plant species, distributed primarily across tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Central and South America, with Africa considered the center of origin. Some species are commonly grown indoors as ornamental houseplants in cooler climates, or cultivated outside in summertime for their bright colorful flowers, which have petals but no sepals.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Begonia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the genus Begonia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “subshrub or shrub”, “wet tropical”.

Nothing derived: no habitat climate for this species.
How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Group. Listed under the genus Begonia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “subshrub or shrub”, “wet tropical”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

No habitat climate can be derived: No georeferenced record inside the range.

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP.
No openly licensed record to show inside the range.
NativeBrazil Southeast · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedNo georeferenced records inside the stated native range.

Photographs

Begonia acetosa, photograph 1did not loadBegonia acetosa, photograph 2did not loadBegonia acetosa, photograph 3did not loadBegonia acetosa, photograph 4did not loadBegonia acetosa, photograph 5did not loadBegonia acetosa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Shijan Kaakkara, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons; David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); Raffi Kojian, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2).

Other Begonia 279 in the reference

Begonia abdullahpieei Begoniaceae Begonia acerifolia Begonia acerifolia Maple-leaved begonia Photo: CC BY, Yuri Sofronov Begonia acetosella Begoniaceae Begonia acida Begonia acida Begoniaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Michael WolfBegonia aconitifolia Begonia aconitifolia Aconite Leaved Begonia Photo: CC BY-SA, rubens curveloBegonia acutifolia Begonia acutifolia Begoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Cliff from I now live in Arlington, VA… Begonia albomaculata Begoniaceae Begonia × albopicta Begoniaceae Begonia alice-clarkiae Begoniaceae Begonia almedana Begoniaceae Begonia amphioxus Begoniaceae Begonia ampla Begonia ampla Begoniaceae Photo: CC0, Ricardo Lima all 280 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Begonia cantareira. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Begoniaceae
Described by
Vell.
Native to
Brazil Southeast
Wild records
none in range

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21no georeferenced record inside the range
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence.

Cultifolio

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