Begonia maculata 'Snow Cap Variegated'

Morphology

About

Begonia maculata 'Snow Cap Variegata' pushes the species' cream variegation to its practical limit — broad, heavy sectors of pure white creep in from the leaf margins over the classic silver-spotted green, leaving only a narrow core of photosynthetic tissue running along the midrib. The effect reads as a permanent dusting of snow across each angel-wing leaf, hence the name. Because so little chlorophyll-bearing tissue remains on the most heavily marked leaves, growth is slower and more light-hungry than the plain species or the lighter Albo Variegata form, and it is correspondingly harder to source and considerably more expensive. Deep red leaf undersides persist beneath the white sectoring.