Cremneria is a small genus of succulent plants in the family Crassulaceae (order Saxifragales). It was formally described by American botanist Reid Moran in 1975 in the journal Baileya (19(4): 145), where it was designated as a nothogenus — a name published under the International Code of Nomenclature specifically to cover a group of intergeneric hybrids rather than a single wild lineage. Per the International Plant Names Index, the parentage recorded for the name is Cremnophila × Echeveria, combining two rosette-forming Crassulaceae genera native to Mexico; the name itself follows the same portmanteau pattern used for several related Crassulaceae hybrid genera (compare ×Graptoveria, ×Pachyveria, ×Sedeveria).
Several of the hybrids later folded into Cremneria were already known under older names well before Moran's 1975 treatment — species such as Cremneria mutabilis, C. pruinosa, and C. scaphylla trace their basionyms to 19th-century combinations credited to the horticulturist Deleuil and the Belgian botanist Édouard Morren, suggesting these plants first arose or were noticed in cultivation. Moran's 1975 paper also added Cremneria expatriata, based on Echeveria ×expatriata Rose.
Taxonomic treatment of the genus is not fully consistent across databases: some sources (including one GBIF backbone record) list Cremneria as an ordinary two-species genus (C. pruinosa and C. mutabilis) without the hybrid marker, while others retain the formal nothogenus "×Cremneria" with four recognized hybrid species (adding C. expatriata and C. scaphylla). In all treatments the genus sits in family Crassulaceae, order Saxifragales, alongside its presumed parent genera Echeveria and Cremnophila.
Taxonomy Notes
Cremneria was published by Reid Moran in 1975 (Baileya 19(4): 145) as the nothogenus "×Cremneria," with recorded parentage Cremnophila × Echeveria (IPNI). Databases disagree on scope: GBIF's backbone lists it as an unmarked two-species genus (C. pruinosa, C. mutabilis), while the formal hybrid-genus record recognizes four species, adding C. expatriata and C. scaphylla.
History
Some of the hybrids now placed in Cremneria (C. mutabilis, C. pruinosa, C. scaphylla) were first named in the 19th century under combinations credited to the horticulturist Deleuil and Belgian botanist Édouard Morren, before Reid Moran united them — together with the newly added C. expatriata — under the nothogenus ×Cremneria in 1975.
Etymology
The name Cremneria is not glossed directly by IPNI, but its recorded parentage (Cremnophila × Echeveria) and the naming pattern shared with other Crassulaceae hybrid genera (×Graptoveria, ×Pachyveria, ×Sedeveria) suggest it is a portmanteau of its two parent genus names.
