HOLWAYI   Rose, 1911

REINSTATED AS A DISTINCT SPECIES. 

Published in Crassulacea 5, 29. Sept. 2017. 

Series Gibbiflorae

Type : US 399680, collected by E.W.D. Holway near Oaxaca, Mexico, November 1903.

Distribution : Oaxaca.

First Description by Rose in Contributions to the US National Herbarium 13: 295. 1911 :

Caulescent, in cultivated specimens the stem short and stout.

Leaves forming a dense rosette at top of stem, pale green, slightly glaucous, sometimes purplish, obovate, obtuse, mucronate, narrowed at base into a stout, short petiole, the margin somewhat wavy, 10 - 12 cm long.

Flowering stem 90 - 120 cm long, often deep red and glaucous, its leaves scattered, inflorescence a much-branched panicle, main branches axillary, 5 - 15-flowered, flowers arranged in a secund raceme, pedicels short, often only 1 or 2 mm long.

Flowers : Sepals erect or ascending, linear, acute, very unequal, corolla 12 mm long, rose-coloured when fully open, its lobes acute, with spreading tips.

This species flowered in Washington at the side of E. gigantea. It is of similar stature to this, but has much lighter and differently margined leaves, redder stems, longer flowering branches and different flowers.

Note :

1. The type specimen consists of a pressed plant and a photo of the living plant - see photo below. Both are in stark contrast to the description by Rose which evokes an E. gigantea-like plant with a many branched inflorescence, the branches with up to 15 flowers. In other words : the type specimen and the description do not correspond, i.e. they concern two different plants, the name of course belongs to the type. 

2. Walther (Echeveria, 203, 1972) listed E. holwayi as  a synonym of E. acutifolia, of course erroneously.