Fruticosa Gideon F.Sm., 2025

Kalanchoe View in CoL [subg. Bryophyllum sect. Invasores ] ser. Fruticosa Gideon F.Sm. , ser. nov.

Type:— Kalanchoe serrata Mannoni & Boiteau (1947: 152) ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 ), here designated.

Designations not validly published:—“ Kalanchoe [sect. Bryophyllum ] subsect. Suffrutescentes ” Boiteau (1947: 9), nom. inval. ( Turland et al. 2018: Art. 39.1), by inference because included species were not explicitly stated.

“ Kalanchoe [sect. Bryophyllum ] [infragen. unranked, as “§ 7”] Suffrutescentes ” Boiteau & Mannoni (1949c: 69), nom. inval. ( Turland et al. 2018: Art. 39.1).

Informally proposed “Groupe” not intended as a name sensu Turland et al. (2018: Art. 6.3):—Groupe VII. Suffrutescentes Boiteau & Allorge-Boiteau (1995: 16 [page not numbered], 96).

Included taxa (including the type species) in alphabetical sequence, with, if applicable, autonymic varieties not listed:—Eleven species. [1] Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi Raymond-Hamet & Perrier de la Bâthie (1915: 75) , [1.1] K. fedtschenkoi var. boiteaui Smith (2024e: 108) , [2] K. laxiflora Baker (1887: 472) , [3] K. marnieriana H.Jacobsen ex Boiteau & Allorge-Boiteau (1995: 102) , [4] K. peltigera Descoings (2005a: 6) , [5] K. perrieri Shtein, Gideon F.Sm. & D.-P.Klein in Shtein et al. (2021a: 270), [6] K. rosei Raymond-Hamet & Perrier de la Bâthie (1914: 132) , nom. cons., [7] K. serrata Mannoni & Boiteau (1947: 152) , [8] K. tenuiflora Descoings (2004: 233) , [9] K. torrejacqii Shtein & Smith (2021b: 206) , [10] K. variifolia (Guillaumin & Humbert 1941: 319) Shtein, D.-P.Klein & Gideon F.Sm. in Shtein et al. (2021b: 233), [10.1] K. variifolia var. seyrigii (Boiteau & Mannoni 1949c: 71) Shtein, D.-P.Klein & Gideon F.Sm. in Shtein et al. (2021b: 236), and [11] K. waldheimii Raymond-Hamet & Perrier de la Bâthie (1915: 71) .

Note that the name K. rosei Raymond-Hamet & Perrier de la Bâthie (1914: 132) , i.e., number ‘6’, above, is conserved against the name K. bouvieri Hamet & Perrier de la Bâthie (1912: 366) [see Smith & Figueiredo (2018b: 1039, 2019a: 138–139), Applequist (2022: 227, 2024: 294), Smith (2022c: 693), Wilson (2023: 423, 2024: 1082), and Turland et al. (2024: 1313, 1321, 1323)].

Diagnosis:—The taxa included in K. ser. Fruticosa , differ from the other taxa included in K. sect. Invasores, i.e., those included in K. ser. Invasores, K. ser. Herbacea , and K. ser. Vilana, by a combination of characters, including that plants are generally perennial shrubs; usually thin- stem med, with the stems being erect to leaning, brittle-woody, sprouting numerous stilt-like roots and covered in a slightly peeling to flaking bark; have generally flat, sessile or petiolate, decussate leaves that vary from obovate to round to hastate; leaf margins that are phyllo-bulbiliferous under stress; have inflorescences that are usually apically distinctly pendent pre-anthesis but later erect; and have colourful, pendent flowers at anthesis, with the inflorescences generally being flori-bulbiliferous post-anthesis, if at all.

Description:—Perennial, erect to spreading, tuft-like, glabrous, brittle shrubs, densely branched especially basally, with haphazard, untidy canopies; succulent, to 0.5–0.6(–1.0) m tall when in flower, clumps annually increasing in size. Stems thin, light green when young, becoming brown, variously erect, leaning or even prostrate, rooting along the way, erect and leaning branches developing long, near-woody stilt-like roots; bark slightly peeling to flaking with age, hard, brown. Leaves many, sparsely or very densely packed, especially in young plants, more widely dispersed on older stems, erect to variously slanted away from branches, often in one plane, succulent, glabrous, petiolate, flattened above and below, often slightly indented above and below along midrib and leaf veins, green to glaucous green, slightly waxy, wax easily rubs off; petiole generally robust if present, concolorous or light whitish green, succulent; blade ± flat, ovate, obovate, round, or hastate, succulent; base attenuate or winged to slightly to distinctly auriculate to peltate; apex rounded-obtuse to bluntly pointed; margins rarely ± entire, usually irregularly toothed with well-defined, round-tipped or acute crenations along part or entire length of margin, depressions between teeth usually dark brown purple, crenations often somewhat angled towards apex, bulbiliferous. Inflorescence a terminal, apically branched, many-flowered head-shaped corymb, apically distinctly pendent pre-anthesis, later erect; some corymb branches often terminating in sterile, curved, pedicel-like branchlets; peduncle straight, light brownish purple; pedicels glabrous. Flowers tetramerous, pendent at anthesis, becoming suberect when dry, glabrous, subtended by small leaf-like bracts that remain persistent for a long time, waxy bloom absent, papery when dry, dries a deeper shade of purple than calyx; calyx ± tubular to somewhat balloon-like inflated for ± ⅔; sepals with free portion deltoid- to elongated-triangular, acute-tipped, obscuring up to ¾ of the corolla tube, light greenish to yellowish to light greenish purple; corolla red, reddish purple, pinkish, orange, to pale yellow; tube ± cylindrical, slightly flared at the mouth; lobes somewhat round to ovate to obovate, apically obtuse. Stamens inserted very low-down in corolla tube at ± upper end of carpels, slightly exserted; filaments thin, purplish red to light greenish; anthers black, visible at mouth to slightly exserted. Pistil consisting of 4 carpels; carpels light shiny green; nectar scales ± square, free, slightly indented above. Chromosome number: 2 n = 34 [diploid], rarely 2 n = 68 [tetraploid] ( Smith 2022b: 158–159, 162, 173).