6. Echeveria affinis E. Walther.

(Figures 23-26.)


Echeveria affinis E. Walther, Cactus and Succ. Jour. Amer., vol. 30, no. 4, p. 105, 1958.

Illustrations. Walther, op. cit., pp. 106, 107, figs. 54, 55, 1958; Nat. Hort. Mag., vol. 38, no. 1, p. 56, 1959.


Plants glabrous; stem evident only in age, mostly simple, but ultimately budding below; rosettes dense; leaves numerous, broadly oblanceolate, shortly acuminate, to 5 cm. long and 2 cm. broad, beneath strongly convex, nearly flat above, somewhat upcurved above middle; inflorescences two or three, to 15 cm. tall; peduncle erect, stout; lower bracts few, oblong, acute, to 2 cm. long, ascending-spreading; inflorescence a flat-topped cyme with three to five spreading branches but without an elongated central axis; each branch with five to seven flowers; pedicels to 8 mm. long; sepals appressed, subequal, ovate-deltoid to oblong-lanceolate, turgid, acute at the somewhat incurved tips; corolla urceolate-campanulate, bluntly pentagonal, 10 mm. long, to 8 mm. wide at the spreading petal-tips, petals with small, but definite basal hollow within and apiculate tips; stamens 8 to 9 mm. long; carpels 8 mm. long, with slender styles; nectaries 1 mm. wide, narrowly lunate-reniform. Flowers from August on.



Figure 23. 6. Echeveria affinis E. Walther. Flowering plant, x 0.75. Plant photo­graphed in San Diego 11 August 1960; collected near Los Angeles, Durango, Mexico (Moran and Kimnach 7619).



Figure 24. 6. Echeveria affinis E. Walther. Explanation: (1, 2) leaf, x 1; (3, 4) flowers, X 3; (5) apex of petal, greatly enlarged; (6) petals and stamens, x 3; (7) anther, greatly enlarged; (8) carpels, x 3; (9-11) nectary, x 15. Drawing by Mrs. May Bios, 24 August 1956; plant of the type collection (UCBG 54.1241-1).



Figure 25. 6. Echeveria affinis E. Walther. Inflorescence, x 0.5. Plant flowering in San Diego 1 August 1964; collected near Los Angeles, Durango, Mexico (Moran and Kimnach 7619).


Description from living plant grown in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, re­ceived from the University of California Botanical Garden.


Color. Leaves brownish olive, becoming almost black in full sun, beneath cosse-green; peduncle olive-buff, to corinthian-red above; bracts lettuce-green, to oil-green at tips; sepals scheeles-green, to light jasper-red at anthesis; corolla scarlet-red; petals inside eugenia-red; carpels whitish; styles straw-yellow, as are the nectaries.


Type. From Mexico without definite locality, cultivated in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Walther, in 1957 (CAS, no. 403156).


Occurrence. Mexico.


Collections. Cultivated: Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Walther, in 1957 (CAS, type), U.S. Agricultural Research Service, Glenn Dale, Md., no. 197677, from Sinaloa, Mexico (CAS).


Remarks. My original material, furnished me through the courtesy of Mr. Paul C. Hutchison of the University of California Botanical Garden, came without any data as to its exact source. No doubt this is closely related to E. craigiana, but differs as stated under that species. According to Dr. C. H. Uhl of Cornell, the chromosome number is n = 30.


In cultivation, plants of E. affinis may at times develop a fasciated stem, forming a crest with smaller, very crowded leaves. This may be recorded here as E. affinis cultivar 'Crest'.



Figure 26. 6. Echeveria affinis E. Walther. Ex­planation: (a) flower, x 2; (b) flower from be­low, x 2; (c) inside of petal, x 2; (d) apex of petal, x 8; (e) carpels, X 2; (f) nectary, front view, x 16; (g) nectary, side view, x 16; (h) leaf, x 0.4; (hh) leaf, cross-section, x 0.4; (hhh) leaf, side view, x 0.4; (i) bract, x 2. From the original publication (Cactus and Suc­culent Journal, volume 30, page 107, figure 55).


© Echeveria, 1972