MACDOUGALLII  Walther, 1958

Synonym : Echeveria sedoides  E. Walther (1958)

Series Nudae

Type : According to the respective herbarium sheet CAS 268566, the type is a plant from Victor Reiter, received from MacDougall 1938, but it is not T. MacDougall B-15.

Etymology : Named for its discoverer, Thomas MacDougall.

Distribution: Mexico (Oaxaca).

Description by Reid Moran of a plant from habitat : 

Caudex erect, 11 cm tall, 8 mm thick, somewhat branching, reddish.

Rosette 3 cm wide, of ca 15 leaves, crowded.

Leaves elliptic-oblanceolate, acute, to 15 x 9 x 4 mm.

Floral stem 9 cm tall, 3.5 mm thick, with ca 15 leaf scars, raceme 3-flowered, pedicels 5 mm long x 1.5 mm. 

Flowers : Calyx disk 3 - 4 mm wide, the segments wide-spreading, nearly equal, elliptic, acute, 6 - 9 x 2 - 3 x 1.5 mm, corolla 11 - 12 mm long, 8 mm wide at the base, 4 mm wide at the apex, red, with yellow on covered edges.

Cytology : n = 19, 34, 40, 42, 50

Note :

The type of E. macdougallii is a plant of unknown origin. It is not E. B-15. The description is made from another plant of unknown origin, also not E. B-15, i.e. E. B-15 is not at all involved in Walther's E. macdougallii. As the name is fixed to the type, E. macdougallii  is the plant represented by CAS 268566, provided by MacDougall but not one of his Mexican collections.  Walther's description under the title E. macdougallii does not apply to the latter, it is the description of the unknown plant from his garden. 

To summarise : 

1. We have a specimen of a plant with unknown Mexican origin, prepared 1939, because of Walther's designation as type now bearing the name E. macdougallii.

2. We have B-15, mentioned several times but not involved in any way and never pressed / named / described.

3. We have a plant from Walther's own collection, origin unknown, whose description was published in Cact. Succ. J. (Los Angeles) 1958, lacking a name because it does not correspond to the specimen designated as type and therefore bearing the name E. macdougallii.

Needless to say that this chapter in Walther's monograph is not worth the paper it is printed on.

This is one of the biggest frauds Walther has committed.

Details see p. 260 - 261 in Revision of Walther's monograph Echeveria, 1972.

2. Pilbeam, The genus Echeveria, p. 166, fig. 209, 2008, most certainly does not show E. macdougallii, to prove the contrary the flowers of this plant would be necessary.