BAKERI  Kimnach 1991   (engl./ fr.)

Series Racemosae

Type : W. Baker 5159, Bolivia. Dept. Cochabamba : Prov. Quillacollo, ca 30 km W of Cochabamba on road to Oruro, ca 3650 m asl., Feb 1983.

Etymology : Named for William Baker who has made several plant-hunting excursions into Central and South America.

Distribution : Bolivia (Dept. Cochabamba).

First Description by M. Kimnach in Cactus and Succulent Journal (US) 63(5) 254.1991 :

Plant usually a single rosette, entirely glabrous.

Stem 2.5 - 3 cm thick and up to 10 cm long or more.

Rosette 18 - 20 cm wide.

Leaves completely hiding upper part of stem, at first ascending, later spreading or slightly upcurving, when young linear-elliptical to oblong or slightly spatulate, eventually oblanceolate, 8 - 11 cm long, 25 - 31 mm wide ca 3 cm below apex, 15 - 17 mm wide near base, 3 - 6 mm thick ca 3 cm from apex, white with thick waxy powder, the epidermis olive green to reddish beneath wax, the margin often reddish, or leaf nearly non-glaucous and then light green to reddish, the apical mucro deltoid and ca 2 mm long and wide, the leaf-edge rather sharp, the upper surface somewhat convex on basal half, shallowly concave on apical half and often with a 2 - 4 mm wide longitudinal keel, the lower surface convex and obtusely keeled.

Flowering stems 1 or 2, to 45 (-90) cm long, ca 7 mm thick near base and 5 mm near apex, lightly glaucous, basal 12 - 30 cm lacking flowers, basal 5 cm sometimes also lacking bracts, peduncle-bracts 1 - 1.5 cm apart, upper ones ascending to parallel with stem, lower ones expanding to spreading, widely elliptical to linear-ovate, acute, cuspidate, 1.5 - 5.5 cm long, 5 - 10 mm wide, 2 - 6 mm thick, usually heavily white-glaucous, or sometimes hardly so, each bract with a refuse to deltoid basal spur to 2 mm long and wide, inflorescence a simple equilateral raceme ca 30 - 60 cm long, inflorescence-bracts linear-obovate to widely elliptical, acute, barely cuspidate, 1.5 - 2.5 cm long, 5 - 11 mm wide, 2 - 4 mm thick, flowers ca 18 - 40 to each inflorescence, single, pedicels ascending when young, recurving during anthesis, erect and parallel to rachis or nearly so after closing, 9 - 22 mm long, ca 2 mm thick, glaucous pinkish, sometimes lacking bracteoles but usually with 1 or 2 linear-lanceolate acute bracteoles 3 - 9 mm long and 1 - 4 mm wide.

Flowers : Calyx lobes united at base for 1 - 2 mm, erect and pressed against corolla, unequal, oblong-obovate, acute, 4 - 8 mm long, 3 mm wide, ca 1.5 mm thick, glaucous, dark green beneath bloom, the apex sometimes reddish, corolla ovoid, strongly pentagonal, 8 - 13 mm thick, petals elliptical-oblong, subobtuse, minutely mucronate, strongly keeled, 12 - 20 mm long, 4.5 - 5.5 mm wide, pinkish orange outside and with a darker reddish center stripe, yellowish within and with a reddish apex.

Link to a summary of the above description in English and French.