Kalanchoe

MAROMOKOTRENSIS   Descoings & Rebmann, 2006  (engl./ fr.)

Section Bryophyllum

 

Distribution : Northern Madagascar, near the village of Maromokotra

 

 

Description :

 

Biennial plants, erect, sparsely branched, becoming slightly woody at the base, glabrous except for the corolla.

 

Stems 40 - 80 cm tall, cylindric, up to 15 mm thick, smooth and greenish in the upper part, soon covered with a kind of light brown bark bursting into long narrow stripes, cicatrice small and round.

 

Leaves 15 - 20 x 6 - 7 cm, lanceolate to oblong, decussate, subsessile, not very thick, fleshy, apex deltoid acuminate, tapering at the base into a petiole 1 - 2 cm long and wide, widened at the base to form a sheath with the base of the opposite leaf, sometimes almost auriculate; margins entire or more often irregularly but strongly serrate-dentate, with deltoid dents of 3 - 5 mm; central leaf vein thick and wide, canaliculate above, strongly projecting below, secondary veins often visible; colour green above, pale and slightly whitish below, margins and main leaf vein may be reddish, under certain conditions leaves become purplish green.

 

Inflorescence terminal, 30 - 40 cm long, lax, cyme corymbose, multiflorous, 18 - 20 cm in diameter, completely covered with a layer of fine white wax; bracts linear, 10 - 40 x 2 - 4 mm, thick and fleshy, strongly canaliculate; pedicels 8 - 12 mm long, at the base ± 1.2 mm thick, narrowing towards the calyx to ± 0.7 mm, greenish white.

 

Flowers pendent, 50 - 55 mm long, pale green with red stripes, bud conic and acuminate, base only slightly concave; calyx tubular vesicular, tube cylindric, at cross section ± tetragonal, slightly concave at the base, 39 - 43 x 13 - 15 mm, thin, pale greenish with 3 wide parallel pale purplish stripes on each lobe, sepals deltoid with acuminate apex, 8 - 9 mm long and 7 - 8 mm at the base, erect, later recurved; corolla 50 - 55 mm long, stipitate, glandular pubescent, same colour as the calyx with several parallel purplish lines.

 

The flowers are fairly similar to those of K. pinnata.

 

First published in French in : Succulentes, No. 3, 2006 


Link to photos by Sven Bernhard 

 

Photos Benoît Henry

Photos Ronen Shtein

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