4. Echeveria pulchella Berger.

(Figures 20-21.)


Echeveria pulchella Berger. Gartenflora, vol. 53, p. 206, 1904; Britton and Rose, N. Amer. Fl., vol. 22. p. 26, 1905; Poellnitz, in Fedde Repert., vol. 39, p. 252, 1936.

Illustrations. Gartenflora, vol. 53, p. 204. fig. 31. 1904; photograph 469/990 (U.S.) [see figure 21] (also at GH, NY, MO).


Stem evident, to 6 cm. tall, branching at base; leaves many, green, not at all glaucous, oblong-spathulate, 35 mm. long or more, to 15 mm. broad, convex beneath, slightly concave above, thick, strongly mucronate, upcurved; inflor­escences two or three, erect, to 20 cm. tall, cymose-paniculate, with two or three branches; peduncle ascending; bracts less readily detached than in re­lated species, obovate-oblong, appressed, curved, 12 to 15 mm. long; branches rather rigid, ascending, 5- or 6-flowered; pedicels stout, 5 mm. long, some­times bracteolate; upper bracts linear-oblanceolate, upcurved; sepals broad, deltoid-ovate, not over 4 mm. long, thick, appressed, united at base for half their length, with indistinct sutures; corolla to 8 mm. long, 6 mm. in basal di­ameter, 4 mm. wide at mouth; petals erect, thin, scarcely hollowed within at base; stamens shorter than petals; nectaries narrowly lunate, to 2 mm. wide. Flowers from April on. Description from plants cultivated in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, originally imported from R. Graessner, Perleberg, Germany.


Color. Leaves biscay-green, often tinged red in sun, not at all glaucous; peduncle etruscan-red; bracts as the leaves; sepals light brownish olive to etrus-can-red; corolla scarlet; petals pale orange-yellow within; styles turtle-green.


Type. Berger, 1904/990, cultivated at La Mortola (MEXU,NY,US, type).


Occurrence. No definite locality is on record for Mexico; presumably this is a hybrid.


Collections. Cultivated: flowered, Washington, D.C., 08-09/R-990, received in 1904 from A. Berger, La Mortola, Italy (US, type; MEXU,NY); Italy, Berger, 04/, flowered in Washington, 09/900.


Remarks. While both Rose and Poellnitz retain this as a valid species, no field collections are known, so that its hybrid nature may be suspected. Berger does not state the source of his material, which may well have been a volunteer garden hybrid. The absence of any glaucous bloom, coupled with a dark red corolla, would seem to point to E. amoena and E. linguaefolia as possible par­ents. James West raised numerous seedlings of E. pulchella, all of them essen­tially alike.



Figure 20. 4. Echeveria pulchella Berger. Parts all natural size. From the original publication (Gartenflora, volume 53, page 204, figure 31).



Figure 21. 4. Echeveria pulchella Berger. Plant grown in Washington (Rose greenheouse plant 990); received from Alwin Berger, La Mortola, Italy. Photograph from the U.S. National Herbarium, no. 469.


© Echeveria, 1972