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Echeveria purpusorum (usually known as an Urbinia) is one of the slowest-growing  Echeverias and it is necessary to cultivate it for many years to get a nice specimen. Its attractiveness lies in the beautifully speckled leaves.

 

Description: E. purpusorum is a small slow growing and unusual species. It has succulent rosettessucculent rosettes, up to 6-8 cm in diameter and tall, it stay usually solitary but it can offset to form a dense clump.
Stem: Very short (almost stemless) it can slowly grow up to 5-7 cm tall, and approx 2 cm in diameter.
Leaves: Crowded, short, and turgid, ovate, acuminate, acute, somewhat recurved at tips, 3-4 cm long and 1,5-2,5 cm wide, 1 cm thick, flat above, rounded beneath, obscurely keeled on the back, deep olive-green or spinach-green, marbled grey-green or white-green and mottled with irregular small redish-brown spots. Margins sharp, translucent, not mottled dark purple. The epidermis is unusually thick with opaque epidermal cell and with few stomata in both leaf surfaces.
Flowers: On a 20 cm tall simply racemose inflorescence (cincinnus) bearing in its basal portion few ovate and acute bracts up to 15 mm long of the same colour of leaves. The 6 to 9 flowers buds are red-orange and open to yellow. Pedicel up to 12 mm long, sepals appressed, calix Globose-urceolate, up to 12 mm long,, greatest diameter 9 mm., about 4 mm. in diameter at mouth at anthesis; pink below, dark-orange to scarlet above, yellow at the tips. The petals are thick, deeply hollowed within at base, but scarcely keeled; nectaries large and thick, truncate-reniform, 2 mm. wide. Style apple-green, stigmas Hays-maroon.
Blooming season: Late spring (May-June).

Note: The plants that are found in cultivation are quite uniform, probably owing to vegetative propagation from a single original import. Any evident departures from the standard form, may be suspected to be due to garden hybridization, whether accidental or intentional. Numerous hybrids are now in cultivation.

 

Short compact leaf form

It is one of the most handsome and district of echeverias its unusual foliage closely simulates that of some South African Haworthia of the Liliaceae.

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Scientific name:  Echeveria purpusorum A. Berger
In: Engler Nat. Pflanzenf, ed. 2, vol. 18a, p. 476, 1930.

Origin: Southern Mexico, Puebla and Oaxaca (Type locality Puebla: near San Luis Atolotitlan)

Habitat: Grows in quite hot and dry areas.

Common English Names include:

Etymology: The genus Echeveria is named after the 18th century Spanish botanist Atanasio Echeverria Codoy.
The species purpusorum is named after the Purpus brothers, Carl A. Purpus (1851-1941), German botanist and explorer in mexico ans USA and Joseph A. Purpus (1860-1932), German horticulturist. (this species was collected with both working together).

Synonyms:

• Urbinia purpusii Rose
  In: Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herb., vol. 13, p. 302, 1911
• Echeveria Purpusii K. Schum
  In: Gartenflora VL (1896) 608, fig. 97
• Dudleya Purpusii (K. Schum.) Britt. et Rose.

Rarely offsetting, it has greatly thickened, drought-resisting leaves with nice dark edges and small red spots.
 

Cultivation: it can tolerate sun to shade but - generally speaking - the more light a plant gets the better it will display its colours and shape. However, when moving plants from lower light conditions into full sun, be wary of sun scorch, most easily avoided by ensuring plants are well-watered before moving them on a cloudy day. They can tolerate extended dry periods and survive drought without the need for watering, but they will grow stronger if they receive adequate moisture during their growing season, ut never allowing the plant to remain waterlogged (root rot sensitive). Use a very porous soil, which will allow quick drainage. Slow release fertilisers with a low to moderate nitrogen content are adequate for the spring and summer growing seasons, and additional fertiliser applications would not required until spring. Good air movement is important for minimising pest and disease risks, and avoiding excessive humidity in cool winter conditions is important to successfully growing Echeveria in the nursery environment. It can tolerate light frosts, but it is best overwintered at 5-10 °C.
With the cooler autumn temperatures tending to make their foliage colours become more intense than those of the active summer growing season.
Aphids like this plant (and all flowering Echeverias).

Propagation: Usually by seeds, but If the plant is repotted some of the bottom leaves can be removed, in order to attempt  leaf propagation, it is also a common practice to collect the leaves on the flower stem.  However this is not one of the easiest  species to root, as many such  cuttings will dry out without producing a plantlet, but with perseverance it is likely to get a few new plants. Needs good drainage

All the information and photos in cactus art files are now available also in the new the Encyclopaedia of Succulents. We hope you find this new site informative and useful.