A co-worker gave me a small plant for my office from a cutting she had taken from one of her own plants. Neither of us know what it is.
It has a stem that is woody near the base but less woody near the top where most of the newer growth is. The leaves are asymmetrical, with one large lobe and one small lobe near the stem coming together to a point at the end like an elongated, lopsided heart. The edges have very small serrations. There are no flowers. The leaves alternate on opposite sides of the stem and the stem also branches off a couple of times.
The largest most mature leaves are over 5" long. They are red/dark pink underneath, and dark green on top covered with slightly raised red spots. The younger leaves are smaller, a lighter pink underneath, and the spots are lighter pink or white.
I’ve browsed hundreds of pictures online but I haven’t seen anything that really resembles it.
Sounds like some kind of begonia. There are about 1500 species of begonia; good luck finding which is your plant.
Durn it, post a photo! (actually, one of the myriad begonia species/hybrids was my first thought too. Some have woody stems/bases). Has it ever flowered?
Are the red spots moving? :eek:
I’m going with a variety of Croton.
Some of the begonia pictures look… similar, anyway. I do have a picture but the photo-sharing places I’ve tried so far are blocked for me here at work. I’ll try to remember to post it when I get home.
ETA: No flowers though.
Boy, you aren’t kidding, there are a lot of begonias.
Okay I’m pretty sure that’s what I’ve got. It looks just like this except mine has pink/red spots and underside instead of white. In fact it looks like it may be “Begonia Angel Wing ‘Benigo’” which is almost an exact match.
Thanks for the help!
Take leaf to your local plant nursery to be certain.
