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Aeonium lindleyi Webb & Berthel.

Family: CRASSULACEAE

Publication: Hist. Nat. Iles Canaries (Phytogr.). 2(1): 189 1840.

Description

Aeonium lindleyi is a small perennial succulent sub-shrub that forms small bushes about 20-50 cm high, with numerous branches carrying small rosettes. The leaves are succulent and covered with hair; they are also sticky. The flowers are yellow. Aeonium lindleyi var. lindleyi can be distinguished from var. viscatum by its extremely fleshy (usually more than 5 mm thick) and distinctly pubescent leaves.

Derivation of specific name. The specific name lindleyi in dedicated to John Lindley (1799-1865), English botanist, secretary of the Royal Horticultural Society, author of several works, especially on Rosaceae and orchids.

Branches: 3-15 mm in diameter, woody, puberulent, viscid, smooth, without reticulations.

Rosettes: 4-9 cm across, rather flattish, inner leaves more or less erect

Leaves: 20-45 mm long, 6- 16 mm wide, 5-7 mm thick, obovate, obovate-spatulate, or more or less rhomboidal, apically obtuse, acute, or attenuate, basally cuneate or atte-nuate, puberulent to distinctly pubescent, viscid, yellowish-green to dark green.

Inflorescence: Cymose panicles, floriferous part 2-7 cm long, 3-9 cm across; peduncle 1- 9 cm. Pedicels 1-10 mm long, puberulent.

Flowers: 8- to 9-merous. Sepals pubescent. Petals 5-7 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, narrowly elliptic or lanceolate, acuminate, yellow. Filaments glabrous.

Similar species: Now A. lindleyi, like Aeonium tortuosum, is one of the perennial Aeoniums with obovate or spathulate hairy leaves and yellow flowers. It is a very different species from tortuosum, being an Aeonium (not an Aichryson), with entire scales, etc., and is a much larger, indeed a comparatively massive, plant. But it might be taken for tortuosum by anyone working from descriptions and not familiar with the plant; and there is no doubt that it has been.

Origin and Habitat

Aeonium lindleyi is native to the Island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands off the western coast of Africa and belonging to Spain.

Altitude range: Up to 1000 metres but most common between 200 and 500 metres.

Bibliography

Bibliography: Major references and further lectures

  1. Reto Nyffeler: Aeonium urbicum. In: Urs Eggli “Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants: Crassulaceae” Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 05/Nov/2012

  2. Ho-yih Liu, “Systematics of Aeonium (Crassulaceae)” National Museum of Natural Science, 1989

  3. Berthold Seemann, “Journal of Botany: British and Foreign”, Volume 65 West, Newman & Company, 1927

  4. Aeonium lindleyi in: “The Cactus and Succulent Journal of Great Britain”, Volume 33 Cactus & Succulent Society of Great Britain., 1971

  5. Urs Eggli, Leonard E. Newton: “Etymological Dictionary of Succulent Plant Names”. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg 2010

  6. Ángel Bañares Baudet, Manuel V. Marrero Gómez and Stephan Scholz: “Taxonomic and nomenclatural notes on Crassulaceae of the Canary Islands, Spain”. In: Willdenowia. 38(2): 481, 2008.