SETOSA var. SETOSA  (engl./ fr.)

Type : C.A.Purpus 419, collected 1907 on rocks. Cerro de la Yerba, just west of San Luis Atolotitlán, southern Puebla. US 592487.

Distribution : Mexico (Puebla: San Luis Atolotitlán, Cerro de la Yerba).

Description by Rose :

Acaulescent giving out offsets from the base.

Leaves 100 or more, forming dense almost globular rosettes (10 - 12 cm in diameter), thickish but flattened, spatulate to oblanceolate, 4 - 5 cm long with an ovate, acute tip, slightly ridged along the middle both above and below, covered on both sides with setiform hairs.

Flowering stems setose, 20 – 30 cm high, bearing small bract-like setose leaves.

Inflorescence usually simple, consisting of an 8 – 10-flowered secund raceme, lower pedicels 2 – 3 cm long, sepals green, linear, setose, spreading, petals 10 – 15 mm long, red at base, yellow at tip, smooth within, short-setose without, stamens white, styles greenish.

Cytology : n = 25

Link to a summary of the above description in French.

Note: 

1. Walther's description was made from “locally cultivated plants” of unknown origin, not well agreeing with the protologue, therefore it is useless.

2. As the photos show, E. setosa var. setosa is an extremely variable species. 

Plants in habitat in Mexico :

Plantes dans l'habitat mexicain :