Pachyphytum
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| Link , Klotzsch & Otto |
Pachyphytum is a genus of plants from the thick-leaf family(Crassulaceae). The botanical name of the genus is derived from the Greek words pachys for thick or strong and phyton for plant . He refers to the mostly thickened leaves of the species of the genus.
description
Vegetative characteristics
The species of the genus Pachyphytum are perennial succulent plants . They grow as hairless rosette plants. The mostly short shoots are upright up to 70 cm when young and later down to longer than 1 m. The mostly simple and occasionally basal branching shoots can reach a diameter of up to 3.5 cm. The rosettes have a diameter of 6 to 20 cm and are composed of 10 to 40, rarely up to 80, clearly separated, mostly intensely blue-frosted leaves. Towards the tip of the shoot, the leaves are much closer together. The young leaves are more or less upright, later spread out and the older ones often bent back. They are obovate to spatulate or elliptically elongated to lanceolate and usually end blunt to pointed.
Inflorescences, flowers and fruits
The upright inflorescence appears laterally from the leaf axils of the upper leaves. The lower 10 to 20 cm of the flower stalks are without leaves, the upper 6 to 9 cm are covered with basal, spurred leaf-like bracts . The inflorescence is simple and initially overhanging. Later it is erect and carries up to 50 individual flowers. The bracts (bracts) are shaped mostly overlapping and elliptical to obovate or lanceolate. Basally, they are often arrow-shaped to encompassing the stem or spurred more or less with two teeth.
The stalk that becomes thicker towards the top has a diameter of 2 to 15 mm. The flowers are five, rarely six, and obdiplostemon . The tubular, barrel or bell-shaped, sometimes pentagonal corolla measures 5.5 to 17 mm × 3.5 to 10 mm at the base and 4.5 to 17 mm in diameter at the top. It is white to pink, more rarely orange to red or reddish in color. The oblong to lanceolate petals are 7 to 17 mm × 2.5 to 6 mm in size. The flower tube is usually spread out and bent back above the middle to flower. On the inside there is usually a red spot above the middle. The stamens are in two circles. The greenish or red stylus are indistinctly set off and 1 to 2 mm in size. The pollination is probably done by hummingbirds .
The fruits are spreading and partially or completely open at the seam. The obovate seed is smooth, reddish brown and 0.5 to 0.8 mm × 0.25 to 0.4 mm in size.
Systematics and distribution
The genus Pachyphytum was established by Link, Klotzsch and Otto in 1841 and first described in the Allgemeine Gartenzeitung . The natural range of the plants of the genus is the eastern and central Mexico . They grow there on rocky slopes at heights of 600 to 2500 m.
According to Joachim Thiede , the genus Pachyphytum includes the following species, which are divided into two sections.
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Section Diotostemon :
Section Pachyphytum :
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There are generic hybrids with the following genera: Echeveria ( × Pachyveria ), Graptopetalum ( × Graptophytum ), Lenophyllum ( × Lenophytum ), Sedum ( × Pachysedum ), Thompsonella ( × Thompsophytum ) and Villadia ( × Pachyladia ).
Pachyphytum appears to be closely related to Echeveria . This was investigated with cross-breeding experiments. The results suggest that Pachyphytum may have originated within Echeveria . If this view is followed, Pachyphytum would be a section within Echeveria .
proof
literature
- J. Thiede: Pachyphytum . In: Urs Eggli: Succulents Lexicon Volume 4. Crassulaceae (thick-leaf plants) . 2003, pp. 197-203, ISBN 3-8001-3998-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dr. Klotzsch: Description of a new Mexican plant Pachyphytum bracteosum . In: Allgemeine Gartenzeitung . Volume 9, Number 2, 1841, pp. 9-10, (online)
