Begonia baccata
Begonia baccata is a large, shrubby begonia endemic to the island of São Tomé in the Gulf of Guinea, where it can reach about 4 m tall; the epithet refers to its fleshy, berry-like fruit, unusual in the genus. It grows in wet evergreen and cloud forest, along streams, waterfalls and damp banks from near sea level to about 1,450 m, so in cultivation it wants warm, humid, shaded conditions and a lot of room.
Where it grows wild
Herbarium labels describe it in montane rain forest and cloud forest, on the ground and on wet banks, beside streams and river cascades, at the margin of the crater lake Lagoa Amélia where plants may be inundated, in secondary forest on slopes and in degraded forest, often densely shaded. Some collectors note a subshrubby or almost scrambling habit. It is also recorded near the coast in the southwest of the island.
GBIF records with altitudes run from about 30 m to about 1,460 m, with a median near 950 m; many collections come from the Lagoa Amélia and Macambrará area of the central massif at 1,300–1,450 m.
🔒 Growing it like that
The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 3.0 licence, unmodified.