Echeveria

QUITENSIS var. CUENCAENSIS   Pino & Montesinos, 2020

Synonyms :

Echeveria cuencaensis  von Poellnitz (1935) see Note 1 below

Echeveria pachanoi  Rose ex von Poellnitz (1935)

 

Series Racemosae

 

Type : J.N. Rose, Pachano & G. Rose 22941, from vicinity of Cuenca, Cantón Cuenca, Prov. Azuay, Ecuador, Sep 1918. (US 1022515)

 

Etymology : Referring to the type locality.

 

Distribution : Ecuador : Provinces Azuay and Cañar and possibly other neighbouring provinces.

 

 

Description by G. Pino (in CSJ US 92(1) : 24-28. 2020) :

 

Succulent glabrous herb with conspicuous branched stems.

 

Primary root : Taproot up to 30 cm long, secondary roots fibrous.

 

Stem erect when young, very frequently decumbent in old plants growing on vertical walls or shade, simple when young or many branched, up to 90 cm long.

 

Branches 2 - 10, 10 - 50 cm long or more in old plants.

 

Rosettes at the end of stem or branch, (5-) 8 - 11 cm in diameter.

 

Leaves (14-) 16 - 26, crowded at the apex, narrowly obovate, sessile, incurved at proximal third, 3 - 7 cm long, up to 1.8 cm wide at middle, upper side flat to slightly channelled, grass green, reddish at margins and tips, lower side obscurely keeled, apex acute with an acute mucro.

 

Flowering stem an equilateral or unilateral raceme, rachis 20 - 45 cm long, light pink at base, dark pink distally, bracts 20 - 25, soon deciduous, oblong-obovate, erect, 1 - 1.5 x 0.3 - 0.5 cm, flat or slightly channelled on upper side, same colour as leaves.

 

Flowers 14 - 25, in a cluster clearly separate from bracts, 1 - 1.2 cm long and 0.7 - 0.8 cm wide, usually facing all towards sun exposure, pedicels 6 - 10 mm, longer in lower flowers, oblique or ascending, with 1 small oblong bracteole at base, another along the pedicel, soon deciduous, 7 - 9 mm long, flower buds ovoid, yellow or orange with a blush, sepals unequal, 8 - 14 mm long, ascending to spreading, grass green, reddish at tips and distal margin, tips frequently recurved, corolla prismatical, petals oblong, acute, outer surface keeled, orange to orangish yellow at proximal 2/3, at apex and inside yellow, filaments cream, anthers cream.

 

Flowering time : August to November.

 

Note :

 

1. The type species has been collected by Rose and two of his assistants in the vicinity of Cuenca, Ecuador, in September 1918. However Rose himself did not describe it and most likely his plant has never been in cultivation. It was Poellnitz who in 1935 made a description after a herbarium specimen from the Botanical Garden of Berlin. He did not know whether the plant had a stem or was acaulescent and he also did not know the colour of the flowers. His description is rather deficient.

 

2. The var. cuencaensis differs from the var. quitensis in the following way :

- Plants are less branched,

- stems are more decumbent,

- rosettes are slightly larger,

- leaves are fewer and more scattered, flatter, light to dark glossy green, sometimes reddish on the abaxial side and never pruinose,

- scapes are longer with more flowers that are slightly larger.

 

3. At Balzain plants with almost completely yellow flowers are growing together with plantswith normal flower colour.

 

4. In Haseltonia 15, 2009 Pino published a description of E. cuencaensis he had made from a plant collected in northern Peru explaining that it corresponded sufficiently with the original, rather deficient description by von Poellnitz of 1935. Meanwhile however he has revised his concept and the plant from northern Peru is no longer considered E. cuencaensis but a different species, described as E. tabaconasensis.

 

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