x gunniae  Gideon F.Sm. & Figueiredo, 2019

Parents : Kalanchoe sexangularis & K. paniculata

Description:

Perennial, few-leaved, unbranched or very sparsely branched, glabrous, robust succulent, to 2.2m tall.

Stems light green to yellowish green, few, unbranched, arising from a brittle, corky base, erect to leaning to creeping.

Leaves opposite-decussate, petiolate, green to yellowish green to copper-coloured, infused with red when under environmental stress, succulent, spreading or recurved, coriaceous and papery on drying; petiole 5–50mm long, channelled above, leaves not clasping the stem; blade 6–14 × 4–10cm, broadly elliptic or obovate to oblong, often somewhat folded lengthwise, recurved in upper half; apex rounded-obtuse; base narrowly triangular to cuneate; margins coarsely crenate or undulate-crenate into rounded, harmless, crenations.

Inflorescence 50–150cm tall, erect to leaning, apically dense, many-flowered, flat-topped thyrse with several dichasia, round to somewhat ellipsoid in outline when viewed from above, branches opposite, slanted away from main axis at about 45°, subtended by leaf-like bracts, without, or more rarely with, leafy branchlets in axils, axis light green to yellowish green; pedicels slender, 5–6mm long.

 Flowers erect, greenish-yellow (tube) to bright yellow (lobes); calyx uniformly shiny light green, not strongly infused with small red spots; sepals 4, basally fused for ± 1 mm, ± 2 × 1mm, triangular-lanceolate, acute-tipped, hardly contrasting against corolla tube; corolla 9–11mm long, distinctly enlarged lower down, not twisted apically after anthesis, yellowish green and yellow; corolla tube 8–11mm long, distinctly 4-angled, box-shaped-square when viewed from below, longitudinally fluted above, greenish-yellow; lobes 2 ×2mm, ± circular, rounded at apex, apiculate, bright yellow, faintly brown-tipped. Stamens inserted well above the middle of the corolla tube, included; filaments 2–3mm long, thin, light green; anthers 0.3–0.5mm long, greenish-yellow.

K. x gunniae is more robust than K. sexangularis.

First published in Bradleya 2019, 141-150.