Echeveria

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.

 

 

See also Note for E. glauca.

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