Aeonium

x splendens  Bramwell & Rowley ex P.V.Heath, 1992

Par: Aeonium hierrense  (R.P.Murray) Pit. & Proust × Aeonium nobile  (Praeger) Praeger

Aeonium ciliatum  Webb & Berthel. × Aeonium nobile  (Praeger) Praeger, in Praeger, Semperviva of the Canary Islands area, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 38 Sect.B (1): 470-471, t.11, fig.11. 1929.

Aeonium ×splendens  Bramwell & G.D.Rowley, in Jacobsen & Rowley, Some name changes in succulent plants, Part V., National Cactus and Succulent Journal 28: 5. (Mar) 1973 nom. inval. (Art. 40.1) [Of the 2 cited illustrations, none was selected as the type].

Aeonium ×splendens  Bramwell & Rowley ex P.V.Heath, The type of Aeonium Webb & Berthelot, Calyx 2(2): 58. (Oct) 1992.

Etym: A Latin adjective, splendens, gleaming.

T: Islas Canarias, La Palma, Barranco de los Gomeros; R. Lloyd Praeger.

HT: Sketch of leaf, in Praeger, Semperviva of the Canary Islands area, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 38 Sect.B (1): 470, t.11, fig.11. 1929.

Obs. Originally thought to be Aeonium ciliatum Webb & Berthel. × Aeonium nobile (Praeger) Praeger, but according to Bañares (2007) it is correctly Aeonium hierrense (R.P.Murray) Pit. & Proust × Aeonium nobile (Praeger) Praeger. The re-evaluation of the parentage does not affect the name of this nothospecies (Art. H.10 Note 2).

 

Description (according to Praeger, An Account of the Sempervivum Group, 1932) :

Stem very thick (2.5 cm in diameter), over 30 cm high in the barren plant, 75 cm high in the flowering plant, unbranched.

Rosette very large, flattish.

Leaves glabrous, very thick (3 mm at margin, 10 mm at centre), dark green, 15 x 7 cm, spathulate, rounded at apex with a short depressed apiculus, attenuate at base, margin red, with short distant conical patent hyaline cilia mixed with very fine pubescence.

Inflorescence more flat-topped than in ciliatum owing to the very long (to 25 cm) lower branches ; flower stem and branches crimson, with the calyx and outer face of the petals finely glandular-pubescent.

Flowers of a rather dirty red, petals whitish above, red at base with short crimson lines, filaments tapering, pink, ovaries white with crimson edges, styles crimson, anthers pale yellow.

 

The plant resembles an overgrown ciliatum, but the leaves are much more solid, approaching the unique massiveness of nobile. The leaves had the dark green tint of ciliatum and the leaf-margins combined the characters of the parents.

 

 

Aeonium ×splendens  HT image from Praeger, Semperviva of the Canary Islands area, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 38 Sect.B (1): 470, t.11, fig. 11. (24 Sep) 1929. 

Aeonium ×splendens  From Praeger, An account of the Sempervivum group: 185, fig. 78. (Aug) 1932.

 

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