Pachyphytum

MACHUCAE García, Glass & Chazaro, 1999

Section Diotostemon-Pachyphytum*


Distribution : Mexico (Michoacán); rocky slopes in tropical deciduous forest, 1800 – 1850 m.


Description (according to IHSP, 2003) :



Perennial rosette plants.



Stems decumbent to pendent, to 30 x 1,5 – 2,5 cm, simple or branched.



Rosettes compact, 10 – 15 cm in diameter, with 12 – 28 leaves.



Leaves lanceolate, (4-) 6 (-7,7) x (1,6-) 1,8 (-2,3) cm, to 1,6 cm thick, glaucous grey-lavender tinged yellowish green towards the base, tip conical rounded.



Inflorescences 18 – 30 cm, pale green, tinged pale rose above, with 10 – 20 flowers, bracts 10 – 22, oblong-elliptic, 5 – 18 x 2 – 5 mm, acute to rounded, floral bracts not imbricate, pedicels 5 – 10 mm.



Flowers : Sepals appressed to the corolla and as long or slightly longer than the corolla, ovate to oblong, unequal, 7 – 11 x 3 – 6 mm, tip obtuse to rounded, corolla campanulate, petals oblong-oblanceolate, mucronate, 6 - 8 x 2 – 3 mm, base yellowish-greenish, pale green above, inner face with an oval or subcircular rose to dark red spot in the center, spot 2,5 – 3  x 2 – 3 mm, floral tube very short, scales ovate-subcirculate, rose to dark red.

 


* The long and almost terete leaves point to an affiliation with Sect. Diotostemon while most but not all floral characters classify it in Sect. Pachyphytum.

 

 According to the protologue, P. machucae is closest to P. caesium.

 

 Published in Acta Botanica Mexicana 47: 9-14, ill., 1999

 

Photos Emmanuelle Aubé.

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