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Studies on the Adaptation and Selection of 50 Species of Mountainous Begonia in Bogor Botanical Gardens Begonia is an ornamental plant which is attractive to many gardeners and plant lovers recently. Besides the exotics or hybrids of this plants that are already well known, wild Begonia are also hunted in their natural habitats. In the tropical rainforests of Java Island, Begonia occurred and grow well in wet, shady and fertile sites as well as river banks and mountainous areas. Therefore they are conserved ex situ in one of national botanic gardens in Indonesia which is Bali Botanical Gardens, Bali at 1.250 asl. The Garden has collected 294 species and been awarded for the completest collections national wide. Many efforts of ex situ conservation for Begonia in Indonesia have been continuously undertaken besides growing them in the mountainous botanic garden in Bali. However, there are lack of knowledge in selecting and acclimating Begonia that can adapt the lowland conservation sites such as Bogor Botanic Garden at 250 m asl. This Garden has collected 5 species, i.e. Begonia glabra Aubl., B. isopteran Dryander, B. mexicana Karsen, B. popenoei Standl. and some unidentified species. The number of collections can be increased potentially when wild Begonia collected are growing well in the glasshouse and new environment of lowland garden. Therefore this research aimed to observe and study Begonia of Bali Botanical Gardens collections that are potentially able to grow well in lowlands. This research was conducted in the glass house of Bogor Botanical Gardens for 2 years from January 2009-December 2010.The living samples, 50 species (8 wild species and 42 exotic collections), were collected from Bali Botanical Gardes.The growth variables were height of plants, the number of buds, the number of leaves and visual growth performances. The results showed that 26 species (52% of samples) grew well, 2 species did not grew well (‘critical’) and 22 species were dead. This implied that many Begonia can also be propagated to be used for commercials, gardening and landscapes in Bogor Botanical Gardens.

Prosiding Konservasi Flora Indonesia dalam Mengatasi Dampak Pemanasan Global. Bali, 14 Juli 2009. Kebun Raya Eka Karya Bali hal. 144-149