Begonia Morphological Characterization as a Model for Technical Guidelines Development of Begonia Variety Protection (PVT) in Indonesia

Begonia (Begoniaceae) are characterized as erect or trailing herb, succulent stem, and asymmetrical leaves (begoniifolia). Native begonia species can be found in the wild but exotic begonia are widely known and cultivated. These two are potential to be developed as ornamental plants. Study on begonia breeding are intended to get a novel variety of begonia. This is expected to adding diversity and at the same time in its economical value. The legal protection on intellectual property rights in plant variety is among efforts to encourage plant breeding study and activity. This legal protection is known as Perlindungan Varietas Tanaman (PVT) or plant variety protection. The study was done through morphological observation on begonia collections at Bali Botanic Gardens. Grouping of varieties will be discussed in this paper. In order to assess uniqueness, uniformity, and stability, a characteristic list from UPOV and ABS (American Begonia Society) was used. In the grouping varieties, it was recommended to employ 48 main characters, including stem (types: erect, rhizomatous, trailing, tuberous); leaf (blade type, leaf blade size, leaf thickness, leaf blade shape, colour); flower (inflorescense length, flower type, flower colour). It was expected that the character can be used to develop technical guidelines for overall begonia varieties (Begonia spp. L.) for plant variety protection submission. Norihiko Tomooka, et al. Proceedings International Conference on Tropical Horticulture. Page.157-167 ISBN 978-979-8257-56-8