Posted by
Baja_Costero (Baja California - Zone 11b) on Jul 16, 2020 10:04 PM concerning plant:
Lilac or pink rosette succulent with flat, spreading, glaucous leaves. Rosettes reach 4-6 inches wide. Stems are upright, then sprawling, branching mostly from the base. The inflorescence is a laxly flowered thyrse, and the spreading petals have red speckles and red tips.
This species and G. pentandrum (of which it was formerly considered a subspecies) are two of three in the genus whose flowers have 5 stamens (not 10). They were both described first from cultivated material and then later found in nature. They are presumably related to a third, clumping species with 5 stamens, the recently described C. glassii (from a small area in Colima).
This species was described as a subspecies of pentandrum in 1987 and is found in Jalisco, Mexico. It is not uncommon in cultivation, and easily propagated from leaves, like other plants in the genus. It can also be propagated from cuttings. The inflorescence is outsized compared to the plant and the flowers are quite pretty. This species can be distinguished from pentandrum based on the number of branches in the inflorescence (a dozen or more, compared to 3 or 4), among other features (it is also tetraploid, not diploid). It was distributed by the ISI in 1986 as ISI 1661.
