Species
+

Begonia cucullata Willd.

Clubbed begonia, Clubed Begonia, Clubed begonia, Wax begonia, Clubed begonia

Climate known 69 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Begonia cucullata, also known as clubbed begonia, is a species of the Begoniaceae that is native to South American countries of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. A common garden plant and part of the section Begonia, it was described in 1805 by Carl Ludwig Willdenow (1765–1812). The specific epithet "cucullata" means "resembling a hood" or "hooded".

Text from Wikipedia, “Begonia cucullata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

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.

Text from Wikipedia, “Begonia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Begoniaceae
Described by
Willd.
Native to
Bolivia, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast +6
Wild records
856 in range· 625 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jan, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1638mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 195 mm (CHELSA)
Light
18–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Begonia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1638 mm a year, wettest January at 195 mm, driest August at 72 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 2.0 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Begonia cucullata var. hookeri (A.DC.) L.B.Sm. & B.G.Schub.; Begonia cucullifolia Hassk.; Begonia dispar Rchb.; Begonia nervosa Kunth; Begonia paludicola C.DC. and 4 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Begonia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1147 mm of 1638 mm) falls in October to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.5 °C against a yearly mean of 20.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to October.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1638 mm a year, wettest January at 195 mm, driest August at 72 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1638 mm a year at the habitat, 1147 mm of it October to April. Wettest month January at 195 mm, driest August at 72 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1278 mm to 2111 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 2.0 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 2.0 °C, the absolute minimum -3.0 °C, about 1 frost night a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 11.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 8.0 °C to 14.9 °C), warmest day 27.9 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 2.0 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by the genus Begonia, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 20 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Jan; mean night from 12 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1638 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 681 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -3.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost35.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-3.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 18–39RH 60–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 681 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 25–3228 / 25–3127 / 24–3025 / 22–2822 / 19–2520 / 17–2420 / 17–2422 / 18–2623 / 19–2725 / 21–2826 / 23–2927 / 24–31
Night °C20 / 17–2320 / 17–2319 / 16–2217 / 14–2014 / 11–1712 / 9–1612 / 8–1513 / 9–1614 / 10–1716 / 13–2018 / 15–2119 / 16–22
Rain mm195 / 134–305169 / 125–241147 / 115–224130 / 81–199119 / 51–16695 / 26–15182 / 22–15172 / 28–120123 / 60–176158 / 113–224168 / 123–232180 / 120–287
DLI38 / 34–4337 / 33–3933 / 29–3426 / 23–3021 / 18–2518 / 15–2420 / 17–2525 / 22–3029 / 24–3434 / 29–3739 / 32–4139 / 33–44
RH %64 / 58–6964 / 60–6963 / 60–6963 / 60–6963 / 60–6763 / 60–6662 / 57–6660 / 55–6661 / 56–6762 / 58–6962 / 58–6862 / 58–69

Each figure is the median across the 681 grid cells holding the 830 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2320:2524 (-26.025, -53.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 681 distinct grid cells holding the 830 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2320:2524 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -26.00_-53.750, lapse-corrected +13 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 506 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBolivia, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay, Uruguay· introduced: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Cape Provinces, St.Helena, Mauritius, Réunion, Korea, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Borneo, Hawaii, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, French Guiana, Venezuela, Colombia
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-26.792, -49.278 · in the densest population, 578 records (68% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 856 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 625 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 110 km away. 510 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 26 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 856 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Begonia cucullataBegonia cucullataBegonia cucullataBegonia cucullataBegonia cucullataBegonia cucullataBegonia cucullataBegonia cucullata

Photographs: (c) Diogo Luiz, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Alex Abair, some rights reserved (CC BY) (7).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Begonia cucullata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Postharvest Treatments on Sensorial and Biochemical Characteristics of Begonia cucullata Willd Edible Flowers
Ilaria Marchioni, Isabella Taglieri, Rosanna Dimita, B. Ruffoni (2022) · Foods
Ozone Sensitivity of Herbaceous Plants: Modification by Ethylenediurea1
H. M. Cathey, H. E. Heggestad (1982) · Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
Combined effect of silicon and non-thermal plasma treatments on yield, mineral content, and nutraceutical proprieties of edible flowers of Begonia cucullata
Silvia Traversari, Laura Pistelli, Bianca Del Ministro, Sonia Cacini (2021) · Plant Physiology and Biochemistry
Effects of model-mimic frequency on insect visitation and plant reproduction in a self-mimicry pollination system
Rubem Samuel de Ávila, Suiane Santos Oleques, Brisa Marciniak, José Ricardo Inácio Ribeiro (2017) · AoB Plants
Naturalization of Begonia cucullata in the Port St. Johns region, Transkei
Tracy McLellan, E.C. Cloete, A.J.N. Bosa (1994) · South African Journal of Botany
Begonia cucullata Extracts Present Antidiabetic Potential by Protecting Human Endothelial Cells and Rats from Oxidative Damage Induced by Glucose Overload
Gabriela Chilanti, Cátia Santos Branco, Luciana Bavaresco Andrade Touguinha, Karina Zanella Lodi (2025) · Plant Foods for Human Nutrition
Produção de Indicadores Ácido-Base Naturais em Solução e em Papel a Partir de Extratos de Plantas com Potencial Aplicação no Ensino de Química
Williana Silva de Oliveira, Paulo S. A. Sousa, Thiciana Silva Sousa Cole (2023) · Química Nova na Escola
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2023) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Begonia 6 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 156 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.