ISI 2026-24. Pachyphytum werdermannii von Poellnitz.
The genus Pachyphytumcurrently includes 25 species of leaf succulents from Mexico. Their fleshy leaves come in a range of pastel colors and glaucousness from white with a thick waxy cuticle, to gray or green blushed with lavender or pinkish tones when more exposed and stressed. At the time of its description, Pachyphytum werdermanniiwas the most northerly species in the genus. (That distinction now belongs to P. huastecanum J.Reyes, Etter & Kristen which will be offered through the ISI in the future.) It was first introduced to cultivation by Dr. Erich Werdermann in 1933 and described by von Poellnitz in 1937. Werdermann (1892-1959) was a German botanist dedicated to the study of succulents, publishing extensively and becoming curator of the Berlin-Dahlem Botanical Garden from 1951 to 1958. But in 1933, he spent several months studying the collections at the Huntington, bookended by collecting trips to the SW US and Mexico. The Pachyphytumthat bears his name was found on the earlier of those expeditions. The type collection was apparently the only one in cultivation for several decades until Reid Moran set out to re-collect it in 1966. He wrote a detailed description of the plant and the story of its re-collection in this Journal (39 (4): 154 -158, 1967). The species is somewhat variable in leaf shape and size but generally has oblong leaves with a rounded apex, somewhat flattened and widest in the middle. Our plant has leaves about 5 cm long with a lavender blush to its beige or grayish color. The flowers are borne in nodding cincinni pollinated by hummingbirds attracted by the red interior of the pendent flowers. As the fruits mature, the flowers turn upward and the persistent sepals dry and become thin, spreading, white and petal-like subtending the five alternating carpels which split open to release their fine, windborne seed. This morphology and these adaptations for pollination and seed dispersal are typical of cliff-dwelling Crassulaceae. We offer rooted cuttings of HBG 128859, a plant received from Myron Kimnach (2011.27). Myron's plant came from the Köhres collection near Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico.
Photo © 2026 by Jack Dawes.
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