Species
+

Begonia maculata Raddi

Cane Begonia, Polka Dot Begonia

Climate known 90 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 maculata, the polka dot begonia, is a species of begonia native to southeast Brazil. It grows naturally in the understory of the Atlantic rainforest, with occurrences confirmed in the Brazilian states of Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro. It has been introduced into Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Argentina.

Text from Wikipedia, “Begonia maculata”, 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
Raddi
Native to
Brazil Southeast
Wild records
205 in range· 106 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Feb, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1475mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 238 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–38DLI
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 September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1475 mm a year, wettest January at 238 mm, driest August at 44 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 13.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
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 aculeata Walp.; Begonia argentea Van Houtte; Begonia argentea Van Houtte ex Klotzsch; Begonia argyrostigma Fisch.; Begonia argyrostigma Fisch. ex Link & Otto and 10 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 September in the northern hemisphere (October to March 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 (1047 mm of 1475 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.7 °C against a yearly mean of 22.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

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 1475 mm a year, wettest January at 238 mm, driest August at 44 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1475 mm a year at the habitat, 1047 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 238 mm, driest August at 44 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1234 mm to 1976 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: 22 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 38 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

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 13.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 13.0 °C, the absolute minimum 10.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 15.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells 11.7 °C to 17.8 °C), warmest day 28.1 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

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: 62 to 67% 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 23 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Feb; mean night from 15 °C in Jul to 21 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1475 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 46 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 10.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°31.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)10.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 22–38RH 62–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 46 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 / 26–3028 / 26–3027 / 25–2926 / 24–2724 / 22–2523 / 21–2523 / 21–2424 / 22–2525 / 22–2626 / 23–2726 / 24–2827 / 25–28
Night °C21 / 18–2421 / 19–2421 / 18–2319 / 16–2217 / 14–2016 / 12–1815 / 12–1815 / 12–1817 / 14–1918 / 15–2019 / 16–2220 / 18–23
Rain mm238 / 164–334164 / 109–237171 / 140–235112 / 78–13676 / 65–9257 / 43–6654 / 43–6944 / 34–6185 / 71–123119 / 91–159147 / 127–249208 / 173–300
DLI37 / 35–3838 / 35–3933 / 31–3429 / 27–3023 / 22–2522 / 20–2322 / 21–2427 / 26–3029 / 27–3233 / 31–3635 / 33–3836 / 35–37
RH %66 / 64–7066 / 64–6967 / 64–7066 / 63–6965 / 63–6763 / 61–6562 / 60–6462 / 59–6464 / 61–6766 / 62–6966 / 62–6867 / 64–69

Each figure is the median across the 46 grid cells holding the 117 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 2205:2789 (-20.275, -40.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.9 °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 46 distinct grid cells holding the 117 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2205:2789 (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 -20.50_-40.625, lapse-corrected +136 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 549 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.
NativeBrazil Southeast· introduced: Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Argentina Northeast
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-22.949, -43.273 · in the densest population, 180 records (88% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 205 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 106 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 10 km away. 72 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 88 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 of the 205 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Begonia maculataBegonia maculataBegonia maculataBegonia maculataBegonia maculataBegonia maculataBegonia maculataBegonia maculata

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (8).

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 maculata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Decay Kinetics of Toluene Phytoremediation Stimulation
Kwang Jin Kim, Eun Ha Yoo, Stanley J. Kays (2012) · HortScience
Investigation of tropical plant‐based natural dyes combination and adsorption optimization for natural dye‐sensitized solar cell
Hunter Sullivan, Bo Wang, Lin Jiang (2022) · Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy
Transgenic lines of Begonia maculata generated by ectopic expression of PttKN1
Quanle Xu, Jiangling Dong, Nan Gao, Meiyu Ruan (2011) · Biologia
Zero-Shot 3D Plant Organ Segmentation with SAM3 and Semantic NeRFs
Andreas Gilson, Laura Hennig, Peter Pietrzyk (2026) · arXiv (Cornell University)
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · 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 44 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.