"...by crossing begonia..." B. manicata with B. hydrocotylifolia. Methinks Jay hit submit by accident before he finished typing, lol.

whoops...you beat me to it, Jay, lol. I was just filling in the blank ;)

Thanks everyone, I will pass this along, I am sure she will be happy to find that she has a unique heirloom plant that she has been taking care of for so long.

Could be 'Bessie Buxton' which looks like a vertical growing Beefsteak whereas Beefsteak ('Erythrophylla') is rhizomatous staying lower to the ground. A side view of the plant in question could help with an ID.

Thanks for the feedback. A search for "begonia Bessie Buxton" or "Bessie Buxton begonia" doesn't find much definitive info, i.e., no Latin/scientific name or any hybrid or lineage data/history and there is no indication that this woman actually created this hybrid, or maybe it was just named for her. I did find one image from the "Buxton Begonia society" which does resemble my photo quite a bit. The search also found this, "Begonia Bessie Buxton (also know as upright pond lily)", other image results are less confirming.

'Bessie Buxton' is a hybrid just like 'Erythrophylla'. Most folks don't know what Latin/scientific names are on most begonias anyway. One picture of an unknown begonia might look like a lot of similar begonias for example so more pictures might help narrow down the search. A ruler or other easy identifiable object in the picture helps determine size but then some plants may be stunted or oversized depending on how they are grown.

Another smaller begonia that looks like the popular beefsteak is 'Gobe' and 'Freddie' looks like beefsteak on steroids.

Some begonia enthusiasts say a no name begonia should not be assumed to be XYZ but I think we can ID some unknowns because how unique they are - 'Silver Dollar', 'Looking Glass', 'Fedor', and a lot of other spectacular begonias are fairly easy to ID. The same folks say an unnamed begonia should not be sold as XYZ as this adds confusion to the overall market. Purists anyway, right? There are sellers who will rename a very well known begonia and the purists get upset about this market ploy as well. 'Brazilian Gentleman' does have more pizzazz than manaus for example but a lot of folks do not like renaming.

PS: a lot of begonias (and I am sure other plant families as well) name a lot of hybrids after people they know or places local to them. The buying public will often mess the names up after they buy them - for instance 'Magdalene Madsen' is often called 'Maggie/ Madeline/ Marilyn - Manson/ Monroe/ etc' It is hard to remember the name let alone the spelling. Is it 'Lois Burks' or Louise Burke or Louis Burk? Then you get into the Latin names and you get barsalouxiae, vankerckhovenii, amphioxus, bipinnatifida, U358, U614, longiciliata, and a few hundred more complex names. UGH!

I guess you can tell that I am not a begonia expert or even and expert on cultivated plants at all. I usually like to stick with studying and identifying local wildflowers, and I wouldn't call myself an expert in that area either - just a enthusiastic hobbyist with some experience, so thanks for all of your input, I appreciate your insight.

When I posted this photo (from Buxton Begonia society) in a message to my cousin she replied with some more details on her plant - "Mine has darker leaves. Under side of leaves are red", this may be evidence that it is likely the "beefstake" since she also did not mention anything about her plant being "upright".

Hi,

Can you provide a side view of your relative's begonia? Bird's eye view is good but not the complete story of ID'ing a plant. For instance ID'ing a tree should include as many important traits of the tree in question - leaf, limb, trunk, blooms, fruit, etc.

There is no evidence that Bessie Buxton hybridized anything. She was the world authority of Begonia which resulted in the Beefsteak being named in her honor. The photo above is a side view? If you google Buxton Begonia, 2 or more species also appear which aren't anything like the Beefsteak, yet they are also named Buxton Begonia. Is there anything about the OP's plant that makes you doubt it is Begonia erythrophyllMcDowell?? 'Beefsteak hc mcdole??

Hi Jay 6a Chicago,

Who said anything about 'Bessie the person' hybridizing anything? I don't know if she was a world authority either (I thought it was Millie Thompson who wrote the bible on Begonias?)

The second begonia posted is a side view of B. 'Bessie Buxton' that the OP borrowed off the web and credited, but not a side view of the original begonia in question. Agreed that the first picture looks a lot like a beefsteak (B. 'Erythrophylla') but I was asking about the stems/rhizomes and how they looked - this seems like it would be definitive if shown that information.

Begonias can be named for a person more than once but something has to change in the name such as 'Madame XYZ', 'Mrs. XYZ', 'Lady XYZ', 'XYZ in Memoriam', etc. Crazy I know but those are the rules. Apparently the names can be identical too but not in the same category such as 'Proud Mary' can be a cane AND a rhizomatous too. Who knew rules could be so crazy.