GRACILIS  Rose ex Walther, 1935  (engl./ fr.)

Series Nudae

Type : C.A.Purpus 24, collected on the high sierra near Coxcatlan, on rocky slopes, 8000 - 9000 feet, 1909.

Etymology : gracilis - Lat. slender, delicate - for the growth habit.

Distribution : Mexico (Oaxaca, Puebla)

Description (by Reid Moran, 1973) :

A small, glabrous plant.

Stems to 20 cm tall, branched below and above, 4 - 8 mm thick, first pale green, later pale brownish green and finally grey, smooth, leaf scars slightly protruding, elliptic, 1 - 2 x 0.5 - 1 mm.

Rosettes 4 - 5 cm across, with 20 - 25 leaves over 1 - 6 cm of the stem, well spaced.

Leaves green or at first slightly glaucous, cuneate-spatulate, obtuse to rounded, mucronate, 20 - 33 x 9 - 15 mm in upper part, 4 - 5 mm wide at base, 2.5 - 3.5 mm thick, flattened ventrally, slightly keeled dorsally, margins narrowly rounded.

Flowering stems often 2 - 3 from below the apex of the stem, 13 - 26 cm tall including the inflorescence, 3 - 5 mm thick, naked for 1.5 - 2.5 cm, with 8 - 22 ascending bracts, resembling the rosette leaves but smaller, oblique and shortly spurred, the lower ones 23 x 10 x 2 mm.

Inflorescence a raceme of 5 - 13 cm with 5 - 11 flowers, or the lowermost pedicels with 2 flowers, pedicels 5 - 10 mm long, 1 - 1,5 mm thick, extended at anthesis and ascending with age.

Flowers : Calyx 3 mm wide, sepals spreading or very slightly reflexed, slightly curved upwards laterally, subequal, linear-lanceolate, subacuminate, 5 - 10 x 1 - 2 mm, corolla 9 - 11mm long, 5 - 6 mm in diameter at base, 6 - 8 mm in diameter at mouth, pentagonal, sides flattened, at base and keels red, orange above and inside, petals connate for ca 2 mm, elliptic, acuminate, apiculate, 4 mm wide, keel dorsally narrowly rounded, sides concave, ventrally sharply concave, nectar cavity rounded, ca 2 x 2 mm, 1 mm high, filaments yellowish above and whitish below, anthers yellow.

Flowering time : June - July.

Cytology : n = 24

Note :

1. E. gracilis was named by Rose, however he never published a description. It is unknown whether he did not describe it at all or whether his notes got lost. The description E. Walther published for E. gracilis Rose in 1935 was not made from Rose's plant but from a plant in cultivation in California which may even have been a garden hybrid. The above description was made by Reid Moran in 1973 from a plant collected by MacDougall in 1963 near the type locality (B-244).

2. MacDougall's B-244 is not a perfect match to the photo of the type plant, however Moran considered its habit, rosette and leaves sufficiently resembling to classify it as E. gracilis even if floral details are somewhat differing. 

3. At the type locality at Coxcatlan E. gracilis has never been found again.

Link to the French translation.