Posted by
Baja_Costero (Baja California - Zone 11b) on Nov 26, 2023 10:07 PM concerning plant:
Pachyphytum is a genus of classic leaf succulents from east-central Mexico. These plants are cousins of the Echeverias, with similarly shaped flowers. The flowers are tube-shaped but usually hidden behind giant sepals and thus invisible from the side. They attract hummingbirds, and intergeneric hybrids are known with related Mexican plants.
The distinguishing feature of the genus is the little flaps on the inside of the flowers (scale-like appendages of the corolla lobes), though this feature is not unique to it (some Echeverias apparently have reduced ones). Most of the common Pachyphytums in cultivation are glaucous to one degree or another.
The former Pachyphytum cuicatecanum has very recently been moved to its own monotypic genus, Jeronimoa, based in part on genetic analysis, which has confirmed the monophyly of the remaining species in Pachyphytum.