Echeveria pumila
Echeveria pumila was mentioned for the first time in Van Houtte's catalogue of 1846 and described 7 years later by Schlechtendal in Hortus Hallensis III: 20, 1853. It was selected from a multitude of propagated seedlings of Echeveria secunda.
Description by Schlechtendal, 1853 :
Echeveria pumila is smaller than E. secunda,
- its leaves are smaller and longer, more acuminate, more cuneate, 4.3 – 5 cm long and 14 mm wide,
- the flowering stem is slender, thin, though barely shorter,
- arrangement and number of flowers are the same,
- bracts are almost semiterete,
- sepals are very big, 10 – 12 mm long, 2.25 mm broad, convex on both sides,
- corolla is similar but smaller and barely 10 mm long, the reddish part is smaller.
And above all – the plant is excellently glaucous !
Note :
1. Echeveria pumila has been described from a plant in cultivation selected in the nursery of Van Houtte in Belgium. That means it is what today is called a cultivar. And of course it has not a Mexican origin ! Walther (Echeveria 1972) published it as a distinct species. This is absurd. A cultivar cannot possibly be classified as a species.
2. ISI 178, offered as “Echeveria pumila Baker. Found on the side of the Volcano Ixtaccihuatl ……..” shows a profound lack of knowledge of the facts and is of course a complete misidentification. A plant collected on the Volcano Istaccihuatl cannot possibly be identical with the original E. pumila selected in the nursery of Van Houtte in Belgium in the 1840s.