That is always a concern Lori, but not just with sempervivum, with all plants entered into the database. As Peter posted, there are many watching the newly entered photos. There have been many times we have had discussions on a particular photo on whether or not it is correct, species and hybrids.
We encourage our sempervivum collectors t0 buy from reputable sources, even then an occasional mistake can happen. The reputable nursery will do their own research and discontinue the incorrectly named plant, if it proves out to be incorrect. We all work together, sempervivum lovers here at ATP (from around the world) and the nurseries.
The original plants came from their natural habitats. The only acceptable way to reproduce them is through offsets (clones), not seed. Some of them are natural hybrids occurring if another population of sempervivum in close proximity, that is why only clones will produce true to the original plant. However most are in isolated populations. The species we have listed here in the database have been in collections for many decades and are the foundation of many new hybrids.
The European sempervivum community is very serious about documenting the history of the species sempervivum. You may already know about this site, but it has wonderful information.
http://translate.google.com/tr...
And Peter's site.
http://sempervivum-liste.de/na...
It has been wonderful working with the serious collectors/hybridizers in Europe. Their knowledge on species and European hybrids is very helpful. We in turn work together on the U.S. hybrids to keep them correct in our database here at ATP.
It is an ongoing work, as it is in all plants here at ATP.
