Begonia brevirimosa
A cane-like shrubby begonia from New Guinea, up to about 2 m tall, with no rhizome and glossy bronze-green leaves marked with metallic pink or purple spots or bands. The plant usually sold is subsp. exotica, from 1160–1525 m in the Western Highlands. It prefers mild, humid conditions and bright shade, and its pink markings are strongest in good light and warmth.
Where it grows wild
An erect herb of the rainforest understory. Tebbitt's revision records no habitat or phenology data from herbarium labels. Other accounts describe it as abundant in the understory of tropical rainforest. The typical subspecies grows in lowland to foothill forest, while subsp. exotica grows in the montane forest of the Central Range.
Subsp. brevirimosa grows at 15–760 m (Torricelli Mountains, Madang, Karkar and New Britain), and subsp. exotica at 1160–1525 m (Baiyer River and the Wahgi River system). The measured records span 5–900 m, so they reflect the warmer lowland subspecies rather than the cultivated plant.
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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.