Figure 61. 24. Echeveria purpusorum Berger. Flowering plant, x 0.4. Plant photographed in San Diego 20 April 1967; of unknown origin (Moran 12283).
24. Echeveria purpusorum Berger.
(Figures 61-64.)
Echeveria purpusorum Berger, in Engler Nat. Pflanzenf, ed. 2, vol. 18a, p. 476, 1930; Poellnitz, in Fedde Repert., vol. 39, p. 259, 1936.
Urbinia purpusii Rose, Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herb., vol. 13, p. 302, 1911; Britton and Rose, N. Amer. Fl., vol. 22, p. 541, 1918.
Illustration. Van Laren's Succulents, fig. 96, 1934.
Rosettes usually with very short or no stem and without offsets; leaves crowded, thick, and turgid, ovate-acuminate, somewhat recurved at tips, flat above, rounded beneath, with an evident median keel-line on both surfaces, 3 to 4 cm. long, 2 cm. broad, 1 cm. thick, cuticle unusually thick, epidermal cells opaque, stomata relatively few on both sides; inflorescence simply racemose; scape to 20 cm. tall, erect; lower bracts few, ovate, acute, appressed, thick, to 15 mm. long, with hyaline basal spur; flowers six to nine; pedicels to 12 mm. long; sepals appressed, ovate-deltoid, subequal, acute, their free portion about 2 mm. long; corolla globose-urceolate, to 12 mm. long, greatest diameter 9 mm., about 4 mm. in diameter at mouth at anthesis; petals exceptionally thick for the series Urceolatae, deeply hollowed within at base, but scarcely keeled; nectaries large and thick for the series, truncate-reniform, 2 mm. wide. Flowers May and June. Description from plants cultivated locally.
Figure 62. 24. Echeveria purpusorum Berger. Rosette with young floral stem, natural size. Plant grown in San Diego; of unknown origin (Moran 12283).
Color. Leaves spinach-green, but more or less closely marked or spotted brown with numerous scattered cell groups having dark, eugenia-red cell sap; peduncle cinnamon-rufous; bracts as leaves, but more kildare-green; sepals elm-green; corolla rose-doree at base, to scarlet-red above, on outside of tips and within empire-yellow; styles apple-green; stigmas Hays-maroon; nectaries buff-yellow, as is also the corresponding basal portion of the carpels.
Figure 63. 24. Echeveria purpusorum Berger. Inflorescence, x 2. Plant flowering in San Diego 20 April 1967; of unknown origin (Moran 12283).
TYPE. Collected in southern Mexico by C. A. and J. A. Purpus in 1909 in the Sierra Mixteca, on the border of Oaxaca and Puebla (US, no. 615402).
Collections. Mexico. Sierra Mixteca, on border of Oaxaca and Puebla, C. A. and J. A. Purpus in 1909 (type). Cultivated: Soldena Gardens, Pasadena, Floyd, 35 (BH).
Remarks. In many ways this is one of the most distinctive of any species of Echeveria. Its unusual foliage closely simulates that of some South African Haworthia of the Liliaceae. As yet we know little about the natural habitat of E. purpusorum, but from the xerophytic aspect of the species I assume it to be quite hot and dry.
Cultivated plants are quite uniform, no doubt owing to vegetative propagation from a single original import. Any evident departures from the typical material, as described above, may be suspected to be due to garden hybridization, whether accidental or intentional. Numerous hybrids are listed, as by Berger, Gossot, and Poellnitz.
No comparisons are required here, for this species stands quite alone in its curiously mottled leaves, very small sepals, quite globose, scarlet corolla, and large nectaries.
Figure 64. 24. Echeveria purpusorum Berger. From an article by Eric Walther (American Horticultural Magazine, volume 39, page 88).
©
Echeveria, 1972