MEGACALYX  Walther, 1959

Series Racemosae

Type : MacDougall B-187, collected at an abandoned lumber camp, on rocks in part shade in pine forest, ca 3000 m, 6 Nov 1957, Neveria, San Juan Mixtepec, Oaxaca. 

Etymolgy : From the Greek megas, large or great, and calyx, botanical term for the sepals. However the name is totally misleading - the plants called E. megacalyx very obviously do not have a "mega" calyx. 

Distribution: Oaxaca, Mexico ; growing in wet, shaded soil covered with grass and ferns.

Description by Reid Moran of a plant collected at San Andres Lovene, Oaxaca, 1959 about 10 miles from the type locality (M 7756) taken from Moran’s Notes concerning E. megacalyx :

Stem short, 1 - 2 cm thick.

Rosettes solitary or to 5 clustered, sessile, 5 - 15 (?) cm wide, of 15 - 40 leaves, the inner tightly clustered, the next inner erect,  so rosette resembles that of Orostachys malacophyllus or Greenovia.

Leaves oblong-oblanceolate to obovate, cuspidate, yellow-green, slightly glaucous at first, often pinkish towards the apex especially dorsally, 2.5 - 8.5 x 2 - 4 x 0.2 cm, the margins acute, narrowly hyaline, sometimes crisped.

Floral stem 30 - 70 cm tall, 3 - 6 mm thick at the base, mostly reddish at least below, with 15 - 35 leaves below the inflorescence, commonly crowded at the base, stem leaves strongly ascending, decreasing rapidly upward, the lower oblong-oblanceolate, to spatulate, 3 - 7 x 1.5 - 2 cm, the upper elliptic.

Inflorescence a spike 10 - 30 cm long, of 20 - 50 flowers. Corolla yellow in the upper third to half, red below, becoming red ± throughout as the flower fades, suburceolate with tips spreading. Calyx appressed. Filaments whitish, scales whitish, pistils whitish, the styles greenish.

Cytology : n = 20.

Note :

The First Description by E. Walther, Further notes of Echeveria, Cactus and Succulent Journal (US) 31(2): 50-52, is from a garden plant of unknown origin and therefore useless.

Plants in habitat :

Plantes dans l'habitat :