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broadleaf stonecrop

Leiberg's stonecrop

Habit Plants perennial, forming open mats, glabrous; stolons slender, 0.4–1.3 mm when dried. Plants biennial, glabrous.
Stems

extensively stoloniferous, with dense terminal rosettes.

horizontal; simple.

Flowering shoots

erect; simple, 3–14 cm;

stem leaves alternate, spatulate-oblong or elliptic-oblong; widest at or below middle, different from rosette leaves.

erect; simple; (5)11–18 cm;

stem leaves alternate, not producing leafy bulbils in axils; ovate or elliptic; widest below middle, bases not spurred.

Leaves

rosette leaves spreading, usually nearly parallel to ground, usually forming flat rosettes, spatulate, narrowing to petioles, 7–19 × 4.5–10 mm, 5 × as wide as thick, green or pruinose and white, bases not spurred, not scarious, sometimes muricate or papillose near margins;

tips rounded or truncate;

surfaces usually glaucous.

rosette leaves deciduous, spreading, narrowly oblanceolate, 2–16 × 1.4–3.2 mm, green or greenish white, bases not spurred;

tips blunt;

surfaces papillose, not glaucous.

Inflorescences

cymes with ~30 flowers, 3-branched;

branches forked;

bracts oblong-spatulate or linear.

cymes with 5–60 flowers, 3–6-branched;

branches often strongly recurved; each 1–3 times dichotomously forked;

bracts like stem leaves but smaller.

Flowers

5-parted;

sepals spreading to erect, lanceolate, linear-lanceolate, oblong-ovate or obovate; ~2.5 × 1.5 mm, green to yellow-green;

tips acute or obtuse;

surface glaucous or pruinose;

petals strongly spreading above erect base, linear to oblanceolate, 4.5–9 mm, yellow;

tips acute;

filaments yellow;

anthers yellow.

(5)6(7)-parted;

sepals ovate, 1.5–2 × 0.7–1.1 mm, green;

tips acute;

petals spreading, separate nearly to base, lanceolate to oblong, 4–6 mm, yellow;

keel green or dark red;

tips subobtuse to acute;

filaments yellow;

anthers yellow;

ovaries glandular-pustulose.

Fruits

erect until mature then spreading, fused basally, brown.

widely spreading when mature, fused near base, glandular-pustulose.

2n

=16.

Sedum spathulifolium

Sedum leibergii

Distribution
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Rocks, cliffs and road cuts. Flowering Apr–Aug. 0–2400 m. Casc, Col, CR, ECas, Est, Sisk, WV. CA, WA; north to British Columbia. Native.

Sedum spathulifolium is highly variable. If subspecies are recognized, most of our plants are S. spathulifolium ssp. spathulifolium. A coastal form with thick, white-pruinose leaves, short, stout stolons, dense inflorescences and thick, crowded stem leaves can be called S. s. ssp. pruinosum (if it is considered a strictly coastal entity). If it is considered to include strongly glaucous or pruinose plants of the Coast Range that are less dense in growth form, the name S. s. var. minus would be applied. Plants with thin, green leaves, numerous long, slender stolons that tend to grow upwards before growing out, paler flowers, and more spreading follicles can be called S. s. ssp. purdyi, a rare form known only from southern Josephine County, and Del Norte and Siskiyou counties in California.

Cliffs, rocky slopes, on basalt or limestone. Flowering Apr–Jul. 50–1800 m. BW, Col, ECas, Lava, Owy. ID, WA. Native.

Sedum leibergii is a small, yellow-flowered Sedum like S. lanceolatum, S. radiatum, or S. stenopetalum. Unlike those species, S. leibergii has distinctly glandular-pustulose follicles. Additionally, S. leibergii does not produce offsets in the axils of stem leaves like S. stenopetalum.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 605
Barbara Wilson, Richard Brainerd, Nick Otting
Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 603
Barbara Wilson, Richard Brainerd, Nick Otting
Sibling taxa
S. acre, S. album, S. debile, S. divergens, S. lanceolatum, S. laxum, S. leibergii, S. moranii, S. oblanceolatum, S. oreganum, S. oregonense, S. radiatum, S. stenopetalum, S. thartii
S. acre, S. album, S. debile, S. divergens, S. lanceolatum, S. laxum, S. moranii, S. oblanceolatum, S. oreganum, S. oregonense, S. radiatum, S. spathulifolium, S. stenopetalum, S. thartii
Synonyms Sedum spathulifolium ssp. pruinosum, Sedum spathulifolium ssp. purdyi, Sedum spathulifolium ssp. spathulifolium, Sedum spathulifolium var. minus, Sedum spathulifolium var. pruinosum, Sedum spathulifolium var. spathulifolium Sedum borschii
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