Begonia diadema
An upright-jointed rhizomatous begonia with deeply lobed, palmate leaves and pink spring flowers. It is best known as one of the species parents behind the rex cultorum hybrids, for example 'Silver Star'. Kew gives Costa Rica as its only native area, but almost all wild-looking records are naturalised plants in the wet forests of eastern Réunion, so wild habitat detail is thin.
Where it grows wild
No field description of native plants was found. The two Costa Rican records come from the Tapantà road near ParaÃso, Cartago, on the wet Caribbean slope of the Talamanca range. On Réunion it grows as an escape in shaded, very wet forest and ravines on the windward east side around Saint-Benoît. The American Begonia Society places it with the upright-jointed rhizomatous begonias: an underground rhizome sends up erect stems.
The Costa Rican records carry no elevation. On Réunion the two records with an elevation are at about 560 and 790 m, and the rest come from low to mid slopes above Saint-Benoît.
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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.