Rhipsalis loefgrenii
Britton and Rose
Reduced to synonymy under L. lumbricoides f. lumbricoides by
Barthlott and Taylor Bradleya13
Rhipsalis novaesii Loefgren, Arch. Jard. Bot. Rio de Janeiro
1. 69. 1915. Not Gurke, 1909.
The description given below is a combination of B & Rs loefgrenii
and Loefgrens novaesii because they are referring to
the same plant!
- Stems long and slender, rooting freely all along stem, pale green
to purple, terete, 3 mm. in
diameter;
- Areoles small, subtended by a large scarious bract with appressed
hairs in axils when
young;
- Flowers very numerous, lateral, 12 to 15 mm. long, campanulate;
- Petals 8 - 10, lanceolate, acute, tip turned out. Higher sepals are
green, lower sepals larger
than the higher ones, outside is glossy white with green stripe, somewhat
pinkish at tip, pale
red at base
- Filaments few, purplish at base;
- Ovary green
- Fruit purplish, 5 to 8 mm. in diameter
- Seeds.small, oblong, brownish, glabrous
- Type locality: Near Campinas, Brazil.
Distribution. Brazil
Dr. Rose saw the Loefgren type in the Botanical Garden at Rio de Janeiro
and obtained living and herbarium specimens of the plant. Dr. Shafer also obtained
living specimens from Loefgren in 1917.
Unfortunately, Loefgren's name was given to another plant by Gurke and
for this reason we have renamed it in honor of Dr. Alberto Loefgren (1854-1918), who long
studied this genus and published an excellent monograph of it in 1915.
NYBG herbarium had a pressed specimen on file but a search by staff failed to find it.
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