CROUCHII  Gideon F.Sm. & Figueiredo, 2018

Section Kalanchoe

Distribution : Restricted to the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa where it occurs near Pilgrim's Rest.

Description :

Perennial, small to medium-sized succulent, 0.25 (-0.4) m tall in bloom, glabrous, very waxy throughout, solitary or with up to 5 few-leaved rosettes, sparsely branched from near the base, plantlets formed higher up on the peduncle.

Stems erect to slightly leaning and curved upwards, glabrous, very waxy especially along internodes, nearly white.

Leaves opposite, erectly spreading, never floppy, succulent, sessile, concave to flattened above, convex below, glabrous, waxy, light grey to white; petiole absent; blade 45 - 50 (-60) x 30 - 40 (-50) cm, round to obovate, not folded  lengthwise, occasionally lightly pink-infused, concave-bowl-shaped; axils sometimes carrying small leafy shoots and short branches that produce flowers in season; base narrow, not auriculate; apex rounded-obtuse, not truncate, not indented; margins smooth, same colour as blade, sometimes bronze.

Inflorescence a slender, erect, sparsely to densely flowered, cylindrical thyrse consisting of several dichasia terminating in monochasia, 0.25 (-0.35) m tall, dry inflorescence remaining on the plant for a long time; branching low down and higher up at internodes on round to 2-angled peduncle through production of side-shoots.

Flowers 10 - 11 mm long, erect to slanted horizontally, pale yellowish green to greenish white (tube) and yellow (lobes), all parts excepting tepal lobes above covered with a substantial white waxy bloom, highly scented, resinous to the touch; pedicels 7 - 9 mm long.

Calyx densely white-waxy, hardly contrasting against slightly paler light greenish yellow corolla tube; sepals 4, 3 - 4 mm long, elongated- triangular, acute, apex rounded.

Corolla white-waxy, light greenish yellow when wax removed, tube 9 - 10 mm long, quadrangular, 4-angled, narrowly elongated-urceolate, lobes 2 - 3 x 2 mm, apically truncated to distinctly indented.

Flowering time : April - September.

First published in Haseltonia 25: 84-90. 2018.