RAUSCHII   van Keppel, 1969

REINSTATED AS A DISTINCT SPECIES. 

Published in Crassulacea No.5, 29. Sept. 2017. 

Type : van Vliet nr. 8 (van Keppel 6852), 15 km NW from Sucre, Bolivia, 2800 m, collected May 29, 1968.

Etymology : Named for Walter Rausch, Austrian Lobivia and Rebutia specialist.

Distribution : Bolivia (Dept. Chiquisaca, Sucre), growing in cracks and hollows filled with humus and / or limestone on very steep, often unreachable slopes, mostly in full sun for some hours each day.

First Description by van Keppel in Cactus and Succulent Journal Great Britain 24(4): 91. 1969 :

Habit caulescent.

Stems short, ca 5 cm long, 1 - 2 cm thick, erect, or very thin, longer and decumbent; branching at base.

Rosette with 10 - 15 closely arranged leaves, 5 - 12 cm diameter.

Leaves fleshy, oblong-oblanceolate to ovate-deltoid, acute, with a red mucro, upper part flat to concave, backside convex, faintly keeled, colour fresh green, not glaucous, with strong dark red edges, 4 - 7 cm long, 8 - 15 mm broad.

Floral stems reddish, erect, 10 - 25 cm long, 2 - 4 mm broad at base; inflorescence part a single, equilateral raceme ca 10 cm long with 5 - 10 spreading to ascending leaves below, the largest 3 - 4 cm long, oblong, concave; bracts linear-oblong, small, scarcely spurred.

Flowers 7 - 20, on reddish, erect, pedicels up to 2 cm long with 2 filmy bracteoles which soon wither; sepals horizontally spreading to ascending, green, linear-oblong, unequal, 3 - 10 mm long; corolla orange to orange-red, orange-yellow within with yellow edges; petals ca 10 mm long, 6 mm broad at the base, sharply pentagonal, 2 - 3 mm wide at the apex, tips recurved, sharply keeled dorsally; carpels green.

Flowering time in September to October.

Cytology : n = ~100.

Note :

Kimnach (2003) has reduced Echeveria rauschii to a synonym of E. whitei. In view of the very different chromosome numbers - E. whitei n = 150 ± 4, E. rauschii n = ~100 - published by Ch. Uhl in Haseltonia 13, 2007, this is no longer justifiable and therefore E. rauschii is reinstated as species.

Plant collected by Philippe Richaud in Bolivia, Department of Chuquisaca, near Padilla :
Plante collectée par Philippe Richaud, dans le département bolivien de Chuquisaca, près de Padilla :

Photos Philippe Richaud

The same plant in cultivation :

Photos Thomas Delange