Monanthes

x sventenii   Bramw. & Rowl., 1973

Parentage : Monanthes laxiflora   (DC) Bolle ex Bornmüller x M. pallens (Webb) Christ.

 

Monanthes x sventenii  Bramwell & Rowley, Some name changes in succulent plants, Part V, National Cactus and Succulent Journal  28(1): 5. 1973.

Distribution : Canary Islands : La Gomera (near Hermigua), Tenerife (Anaga region).

 

Description by Praeger, Semperviva of the Canary Islands area  in Proc. Roy. Irish  Acad. Sect. B, 494-495 (1929) of the form from La Gomera, above Hermigua and near Agulo :

"Inter parentes media.

Caulis decumbens vel repens, ramosus, ramis multis, adscendentibus vel erectis, 10 – 12 cm altis, parte inferiore simplicibus vel ramosis, parte superiore racemos graciles terminales ebracteatos ferentibus.

Folia sessilia, conferta, spathulato-oblanceolata, apice late cuneata nonnumquam subapiculata, 8 – 12 mm longa, 4 – 5 mm lata, 3 – 4 mm crassa, margine integra vel papillosa.

Racemi 1-6-flori.

Flores 7-8-meri. Calyx sparse hirsutus, 3.5 mm longus. Petala glabra, 5 mm longa. Ovaria papillosa.

F. May – June. "

 

Description, also by Praeger, in An account of the Sempervivum Group, 237 (1932) :

"Habit of laxiflora, but differs in its crowded alternate flattish leaves broadest near the apex (not rather distant, opposite, channelled, broadest in the middle) and in its branched (not simple) inflorescence, larger flowers and narrower petals. From M. muralis it differs in its non-shrubby habit, longer stems, leaves, and inflorescence, more cuneate smooth leaves, etc."

 

"The hybrid is variable, like its parents. Near the Roque del Inglese on the Anaga ridge on Tenerife it grows as a smaller, laxer, but more shrubby plant, more purple in colour, with a different appeareance but no essential differences."

Note 

The re-publication of M. x anagiflora by Bañares in Vieraea 43, 2015, is superflous. Bañares cites Art. 40.1 in order to justify his re-publication. Art. 40.1 reads :

« Publication on or after 1 January 1958 of the name of a new taxon of the rank of genus or below is valid only when the type of the name is indicated. »

Apparently Bañares thought that Bramwell & Rowley did not indicate a type – he errs – they did ! Rowley's reference to "Praeger (1929: 489-490)" includes a reference to Praeger's "Plate XV, fig. 27", which happens to be the only original material. Original material always has priority over a neotype, so Bañares's neotype is superfluous (Roy Mottram). 

 Two nothovarieties :

Monanthes x sventenii nothovar. sventenii

Monanthes x sventenii nothovar. burchardii  Heath, 1992.

 

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