White Stonecrop
Scientific name: Sedum album L.
Diagnostic features Glabrous perennial. Stems procumbent, rooting, sending up ascending to erect flowering stems to 20cm and shorter sterile shoots. Leaves alternate, 4-12mm, ± terete, ovoid to cylindrical. Flowers in loose to dense subcorymbose panicle. Petals 5, 2-4mm, white, sometimes tinged pink.
Chromosome number: (2n=32, 64, 68, 102, 136).
Habitat Probably introduced-naturalized; walls, rocks and stony ground.
Distribution Scattered throughout most of British Isles, possibly native in Southwest and Westcentral England; Europe.
This species is keyed out on Page 2834 in the Text Key.
Note Sedum album subsp. micranthum (Bastard) Syme, with smaller flowers and shorter ovoid leaves than Sedum album subsp. album, is only an extreme variant probably not worth subspecies rank. |