Aeonium ×velutinum Praeger
Herb; stems short and prostrate, rather thin, rooting freely, hidden at or just below the ground and with lf rosettes at or close to the ground. Rosettes to c. 17 cm diam., flat, often clustered; smaller rosettes around the main or terminal one. Outer rosette lvs to c. 14 × 4 cm, 4-6 mm thick near middle, obovate or spathulate, tapering gradually towards base, green with dark greenish, rather faint dashes on lower surface, puberulent and flat on both surfaces except for slightly rounded keel on lower; margins ciliate, often slightly reddish in upper part, otherwise green; apex mucronulate to mucronate. Flowering shoots arising from below main rosette lvs; axis rather slender and spreading, puberulent, with numerous leaflike bracts decreasing in size towards infl. Infl. a rather small, broad, ovoid-pyramidal panicle, ± rounded at the top, to c. 9 cm long; fls secund along branches. Calyx lobes 2.5-4 mm long, puberulent, triangular-ovate or lanceolate-ovate. Petals 8-9, 5-7.5 × c. 2 mm, elliptic-lanceolate, yellow. Stamens yellow, the inner whorl 5-6 mm long, the outer whorl slightly shorter. Carpels white or very pale green. Scales c. 0.3 mm long, ± broad-obovate, rounded to emarginate. Fr. and seeds not seen.
N.: Breaker Bay (Wellington); S.: Port Hills (Christchurch), Anderson's Bay (Dunedin).
Cultivated hybrid 1959
Sandy banks behind beaches, steep banks, sometimes amongst other herbs.
FL Oct-Dec.
This hybrid is an occasional escape from cultivation, mainly on the Port Hills, where it has grown wild for many years. The records of a Sempervivum sp. (Healy, A. J., Trans. Roy. Soc. N.Z. 87: 234 (1959)) and S. tectorum L. (Given 1984) are both based on a specimen (CHR 89524, Sumner, Christchurch, Healy, 30.12.1954) of Aeonium × velutinum. The short, prostrate stems, puberulent lvs with short and long marginal cilia, and the lateral infls distinguish this hybrid from any other member of its genus in N.Z. A. × velutinum has the parentage A. canariense (L.) Webb et. Berth. × A. caespitosum (C. A. Smith) Webb et Berth. and N.Z. plants match very closely the illustrations in Praeger (loc. cit.). The rather faint markings on the lower surface of the living lvs indicate the involvement of A. caespitosum.
