MARIANAE  García-Ruiz & Costea, 2014

Series Gibbiflorae

Distribution : Mexico (Jalisco, known only from the Sierra del Tigre), 2450 - 2550 m, occurring in shaded and somewhat humid habitats, sometimes epiphytic.

Description :

Plant not caespitose, glabrous, not glaucous.

Stem : None or to 4 - 6 cm long and 3 - 4 cm in diam.

Rosette lax, 30 - 40 cm in diam., with 16 - 22 leaves.

Leaves 5 - 22 x 3 - 7.5 cm, obovate to oblanceolate, base amplexicaul, apex acute to apiculate, lamina sometimes 2 - 4-lobed distally, light-green to yellow-green, margins with a thin red line, young leaves somewhat crenulate.

Inflorescences 1 o r 2,  cymose-paniculate, up to 100 cm tall, with up to 10 side branches (cincinni) each with 1 - 6 flowers, bracts oblong to ovate-lanceolate, 2 - 6 x 0.5 - 1.5 cm, base auriculate, pedicels 5 - 9 mm long.

Flowers : Sepals fused into a tube of 2.3 - 2.5 mm, unequal, spreading to slightly recurved, 9 - 15 mm x 3 - 6 mm, green, corolla conical in bud, urceolate to campanulate in anthesis, 15 - 20 mm long, 10 - 12 mm in diam. at the base, at mouth 4 - 8 mm, petals 15 - 20 x 6 - 7 mm, imbricate, oblong-lanceolate, mucronate, tips slightly recurved, with a concavity at the base, colour outside pale yellow-whitish at the base, orange above, dark-orange to reddish tips, inside pale yellow at the base, yellow-orange above, with petal appendages, anthers yellow to red.

Flowering time : August - October.

E. marianae is closest to E. novogaliciana and E. dactylifera.

First published in Phytotaxa 2014