Echeveria

OCHOAE   Pino & Galiano, 2017

Series Racemosae

Type : G.Pino, W.H. Galiano, J. Ochoa 2773. Peru, Dept. Cusco, Prov. Urubamba, Dist. Ollantaytambo, Yawar waqaq, beginning of Inca Trail to Machupicchu, 200 m crossing after Pisqak'uchu train station at km 82, on very loose rocky slope facing east the Urubamba river, 2670 m, May 12, 2016.

Etymology : Named for its discoverer Julio Gustavo Ochoa Estrada.

Distribution : Peru (Dept. Cusco), apparently only known from the type locality.

 

First Description by Pino & Galiano in Cactus and Succulent Journal US 89(2): 65-68. 2017 :

A succulent glabrous, solitary or proliferous herb.

Roots many, born from base of rosettes and along creeping stems at nodes, fascicular and fibrous, 3 - 5 (-15) cm long, 0.2 - 2 mm diam., light greyish brown.

Stem erect in young plants, then procumbent, 0.5 - 1.5 cm diam., light brown, becoming light glaucous green near tips, scarcely 2 - 3 branching only from the base, main stem or branches up to 50 cm long in very old plants, with slightly enlarged nodes every 6 - 12 cm, prominent transverse leaf scars 4 - 6 mm long every 4 - 10 mm, more crowded at nodes; dry leaves and roots frequently attached to the stem at nodes and near distal rosette.

Rosettes generally one at the end of stem or branch that then becomes erect, 4 - 12 (-18) cm diam., cupuliform.

Leaves 18 - 36, sessile, wide obovate to spathulate, 2 - 8 cm long, 0.5 - 1.4 cm wide at base, 1.4 - 2.5 cm wide 1 cm from apex, 2 - 4 cm wide at middle, 3 - 4 mm thick, upper side flat to concave, curved inwards, light olive green to glaucous green, reddish near margins and in outer leaves, margins obscurely curved inwards, lower side flat to obscurely carinate, light green to reddish where exposed, apex acute to cuspidate, with an acute slightly recurved hyaline mucro 1 mm long at apex, base, hyaline.

Flowering stem 1 - 3 erect or upcurving racemes lateral from each rosette, rachis 15 - 20 (-30) cm long, 4 - 6 mm diam. at base, 2 - 3 mm diam. at apex, white to pinkish in proximal third, intense pink in two distal thirds. Peduncular bracts 7 - 9, crowded on the proximal half, spaced every 0.3 - 0.6 cm near base and 0.6 - 1 cm or deciduous towards tip, narrowly ovate, straight and adpressed to the scape, tips acuminate, 1.2 - 2.6 cm long, 0.4 - 1 cm wide, 4 - 5 mm thick, inner side canaliculate, outer side keeled, same colour as leaves. Pedicels oblique, 0.8 - 2.5 cm long, 1.8 - 2.2 mm diam., intense pink, with a normal bracteole at the base and another slender bracteole near calyx, 0.5 - 0.9 cm long, 1.5 - 2.5 mm wide, very narrowly ovate to linear, reddish green, outer side convex, inner side curved inwards and concave, apex incurvate or uncinate.

Flowers 6 - 12, appearing from September to October, present only on the distal third of the raceme, 1.5 - 1.8 cm long and 0.9 - 1 cm in diam. Calyx lobes united at base, sepals unequal ovate acute to triangular, adpressed to corolla, 5 - 6 mm long, 3 - 4 mm wide, reddish green. Corolla urceolate, sub-pentagonal, 8 - 9 mm thick near base, 5 - 6 mm thick near apex, 1.7 - 1.9 cm long, petals linear lanceolate, acuminate, 1.4 - 1.6 cm long, 2 - 2.5 mm wide, outer surface keeled, pale yellowish on apical third and pinkish on basal two thirds, apex uncinate, recurving, inner surface yellow on distal half, light pink in basal half.

Note :

Echeveria ochoae is fairly close to E. cuscoensis, however the stems of the latter are more conspicuous, the rosettes are larger and looser, the leaves are wider and lighter coloured, the inflorescences are more erect and more densely flowered and it thrives in a drier and lower environment, blooming almost one month earlier than E. ochoae.

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