VICENTEI

Bull. Acad. Internat. De Geor. Bot. 206: 76 (1906). The original description of this Spanish species is a rather meager one, making the exact identity not at all certain. It was originally collected on the Picos de Urbion, the description first given falls within the limits of S. tectorum Linn., and could well apply to a number of tectorum clones found in the Pyrenees. A point of interest has come to light from Dr. M.C. Smith, of the Botany Dept., Bristol University, who visited Picos de Urbion in 1971, the site from which Pau’s plant is purported to have been found. All the plants that Dr. M.C. Smith found differ from Pau’s description in one important respect, namely, pubescent-leaved rosettes, not glabrous-leaved as Pau’s description of S. vicentei states. Dr. M.C. Smith collected sampels of 50 clones from Pau’s original location and a further 290 plants from locations near Picos de Urbion; all these specimens have densely pubescent rosette leaves, except for just one specimen, resembling S. tectorum var. tectorum which was found 100 yards from a monastery and could well be an escape from cultivation.

The following description is based on that given by Pau in 1906: Rosette leaves oblong-spathulate, mucronate, glabrous with margins ciliate. Cauline leaves oblong-lanceolate with longitudinal spots. The inflorescence is three-branched, with 3 to 4  flowers to each branch; petals twice as long as the calyx, linear, acuminate, pale with a purplish base; filaments glabrous, purple. Corollas are 23 mm in diameter. Rosettes are 2 cm in diameter, juvenile offsets are hairy. The flower-stems are 12 cm high.

A plant we have under cultivation, being originally discovered by Dr. P.L. Giuseppi in 1935, on the Sierra Demanda may prove to be this species.

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