Echeveria

CHILONENSIS  (Kuntze) Walther, 1935 

NOT KNOWN TO BE IN CULTIVATION

Synonym : Sedum chilonense Kuntze (1893)

Series Racemosae

Type : O. Kuntze s.n., Bolivia : Chilon, Department of Sierra de Santa Cruz; collected May 1892.

Etymology : Named for the habitat of the type.

Distribution : Bolivia (Department of Santa Cruz, Chilon – only known from the type locality).

 

First Description as Sedum chilonense by O. Kuntze, Revisio generum plantarum 3(3): 83.1898 (in Latin – English translation by Marco Cristini) :

 

Rhizome prostrate – with upright stems 1 cm thick, 5 cm tall, without sterile or flowering branches.

Leaves densely alternate, very often sessile, oblong, acute, absolutely entire, glabrous, flat, thick, 2.5 cm long, 1 cm wide.

Axillary peduncle 10 cm long.

Corymbose inflorescence with 5-10 flowers with linear-lanceolate bracts barely 1 cm long. Erect pedicels 0.5-1.5 cm long.

5-partite hermaphrodite yellow flowers. Oblong and obtuse sepals, shorter than petals. 5 free, lanceolate petals, 1 cm long. 10 stamens. Every follicle tapers in a short style, bearing many seeds.

 

Note :

 

With leaves only 2.5 cm long and a peduncle of only 10 cm length Sedum chilonense is a rather small plant.

When Eric Walther got to see the type specimen of S. chilonense, he realized that Kuntze's Sedum in fact was an Echeveria species and he published the new combination as Echeveria chilonensis (Kuntze) Walther in CSJ US 7: 40. 15 Sept 1935. In view of the fact that Sedum chilonense / Echeveria chilonensis has yellow flowers, white flowered Bolivian echeverias cannot possibly bear this name. The correct name for the white flowered Bolivian Echeveria species is E. vanvlietii.

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