Sempervivum

NEVADENSE

First described by Dr. R. S. Wale in the Quart. Bull. Alp. Gard. Soc. Vol. 9 page 109 (1941). This species was collected in Sierra Nevada, southern Spain by Dr. P. L. Giuseppi in 1935 (typus in Herb. Kew). The rosettes are 2,5 to 3,5 cm in diameter, flattish, many-leaved and compact; leaves fleshy and incurving, obovate, mucronate with stout, short, curved cilia on leaf edges, otherwise the leaves are glabrous. The offsets are given off on short stolons, the plant soon forming a congested hummock.

Flower-stems are clad with many imbricate, fleshy overlapping leaves; flowers are in a compact inflorescence, petals reddish-pink and filaments dark red.

This is a very distinct and beautiful species having the outer leaves of its rosettes coloured scarlet in winter and pinkish-bronze at flowering time. It is an extremely easy plant to grow and increases rapidly.

 

S. nevadense ‘Hirtellum’.

Under this name Dr. R. S. Wale separated this extremely distinct form which should warrant varietal status, but unfortunately he died in 1952 before arranging publication of the Latin description. Dr. Wale’s typewritten manuscript is deposited in the Kew Herbarium. This cultivar is quite different from the type in that it has larger rosettes with the leaf-margins densely ciliate, also the leaves are less incurving in habit and not showing the red colouring on the back of the leaves to any extent. Indeed, it looks like a different species due to its hairy leaves, providing a silvery-grey appearance during the summer months. All the floral details are identical with those of the type plant.

Culture is easy and soon forms a dense hummock. Like the type plant this cultivar was collected in the Sierra Nevada. 

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