Kalanchoe leblancae Raym.-hamet

A perennial (or biennial?) succulent herb, completely glabrous, 0.30-1.60 m tall. Stem erect, usually simple or sometimes 2-forked at the top (by abortion of the main axis), up to 7 mm thick and woody at base, slender upwards, ± distinctly 4-angled, smooth, reddish and covered with a very tenuous whitish bloom, slightly dilatate at nodes, leafless at flowering time at least below; lower internodes 0.5-1.7 cm long, the upper ones increasing up to 13 cm. Leaves up to 10 x 2(2.8) cm, oblong to oblong-spathulate, rarely oblong-obovate, rounded or obtuse at the apex, crenate, sinuate-crenate or irregularly serrate-lobed at the margin, sessile, but attenuate into a broad, sometimes subpetiolar base, neither connate nor amplexicaul, fleshy, flat, chartaceous and dark brown on drying, decussate, spreading to upright, the uppermost bract-like and appressed to the stem, very caducous. Flowers erect in dense dichotomous cymes forming usually a terminal corymb-like, reddish-brown inflorescence 3-15 x 3-13 cm, or sometimes panicles up to 30 x 17 cm; branches of the inflorescence opposite or nearly so, upright or erect-patent, the lower ones of the panicles up to 17.5 cm long; internodes of panicles up to 14.5 cm long; pedicels 3-4.5 mm long. Calyx-tube up to 0.9 mm long; calyx-lobes 1-1.25 mm long, oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate or triangular, acute, appressed to the corolla-tube. Corolla 8-11.5 mm long, yellow-green to yellow or salmon to bright red, reddish-brown throughout or with the lobes darker than the tube on drying; tube 4-angled, finally swollen in the lower half in fruit, contracted but not twisted above the follicles; corolla-lobes 2-3.1 x 1.75-2 mm, suboblong to ovate, rounded or obtuse and apiculate at the apex, flat or folded along the middle, usually not twisted, erect (but not connivent) or subspreading. Filaments ± 1.5 mm long, inserted above the middle of corolla-tube; anthers 0.5-0.8 mm, oblong, orange or reddish, usually all included, the upper ones with the apices ± at corolla-throat level or sometimes half-exserted. Follicles 5.5-6 mm long, attenuate; styles 0.75-1.25 mm long, thick, reddish, included. Scales ± 1.5 x 0.4 mm, linear-lanceolate, subacute.