Scientists in southwest China's Yunnan Province said on Monday they have discovered a new species of begonia in the city of Pu'er.
The species was named "Begonia austroyunnanensis" by researchers with the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
According to Wang Wenguang, assistant engineer with the garden, the researchers found an unknown species of begonia in Pu'er in 2017 while conducting a field survey of local vegetation. They brought the plant back to the garden to cultivate and later on confirmed it to be a new species after further research.
Wang said China has 204 species of begonia, and about 110 can be found in Yunnan. Currently fewer than 100 individual plants of Begonia austroyunnanensis have been found in the wild, which are grown near croplands. (Xinhua)
Chinese scientists have discovered a new begonia species in Yunnan Province in southwest China, removing another one from the list of many tuberous species estimated yet to be discovered or described in the country.
During the botanical surveys from 2019 to 2020 in Yunnan, researchers from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) collected an unknown Begonia species. After careful taxonomical studies of the genus, and comparison of this unknown species with similar species, the researchers confirmed that it is a new species of Begonia. They named it as Begonia depingiana.
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