8d. Echeveria agavoides var. multifida E. Walther, new.

Echeveria agavoides var. multifida E. Walther, var. nov.

E. agavoides affinis, sed differt: rosulis paucis, foliis ovatis, latissimis ad basin, rubro-marginatis apicibus, separatis difficile; inflorescentiis saepe 4- vel 5-ramosis; sepalis deltoideis, connatis ad basin; corollis cylindraceis.

Rosettes usually solitary even when old; leaves numerous, as many as 50 in each rosette, crowded, broadly ovate, shortly acuminate, to 8 cm. long or more, 3 to 4 cm. broad or more, shallowly concave above, beneath rounded and faintly keeled, sessile, difficult to detach without breaking; inflorescences to 25 cm. tall; peduncle slender, erect-ascending, bracts appressed, racemes two to five on each peduncle, secund-racemose, strongly nodding before anthesis, with about 12 flowers each; pedicels slender, to 9 mm. long or more, turbinate below calyx; sepals unequal, longest 3 to 4 mm. long, deltoid, acute, ascending to appressed, connate and decurrent at base; corolla conoid-cylindroid, scarcely pentagonal, 9 mm. long, 6 mm. in diameter near base; petals somewhat spreading at tips, scarcely hollowed, not keeled, thin, bluntly mucronate; carpels 8 mm. long; nectaries thin, very oblique, scarcely over 1 mm. wide. Flowers March and April.

Color. Leaves amber-colored, with margins near apex deep pompeian-red; peduncle carmine; pedicels brazil-red; sepals pompeian-red to Hays-maroon; corolla scarlet-red to rose-doree below, light orange-yellow at tips and inside; styles apple-green; nectaries nearly white.

TYPE. Collected at the University of California Botanical Garden, E. Walther, April 8, 1959 (CAS, no. 413922).

PARATYPE. Parry and Palmer, 1878/233, in part (mounted with type of E. humilis, (US)).

OCCURRENCE. Mexico. San Luis Potosi: Hacienda de San Francisco.

REMARKS. Typical E. agavoides has leaves without any such red edges and its inflorescence is usually only 2-, rarely 3-branched. When I visited the locality cited above I knew nothing of its inflorescence and its frequent 4- or 5-branched habit. While this plant is sufficiently distinct to require definition, especially since it is in cultivation, it is scarcely different enough from E. agavoides, as previously known, to be described as a species. Since I published its original discovery, commercial dealers have placed it on sale.

© Echeveria, 1972