The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

broadleaf stonecrop

creamy stonecrop

Habit Plants perennial, forming open mats, glabrous; stolons slender, 0.4–1.3 mm when dried. Plants perennial, glabrous; stolons 1.4–5 mm in diameter when dried.
Stems

extensively stoloniferous, with dense terminal rosettes.

much branched, bearing loose rosettes with internodes visible.

Flowering shoots

erect; simple, 3–14 cm;

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

7–26 cm;

stem leaves ascending to somewhat spreading, alternate; round to oblong, 6–17 × 3–13 mm, 1–5 × as long as wide; broadest near or above middle, auriculate or not.

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 broadly oblanceolate, 14–33 × 7–15 mm, 1.2–4.2 × as long as wide;

tips rounded to truncate, often notched;

surfaces glaucous.

Inflorescences

cymes with ~30 flowers, 3-branched;

branches forked;

bracts oblong-spatulate or linear.

panicle-like cymes, columnar, 2.6–9 cm, glaucous.

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-parted;

calyx lobes 1.5–6 mm, 20–55% as long as petals;

tips acute, glaucous;

petals ascending, 7–13 mm, white, cream, occasionally light yellow;

anthers usually yellow; aging brown, rarely red or orange.

Fruits

erect until mature then spreading, fused basally, brown.

erect; distinct, brown.

2n

=30.

Sedum spathulifolium

Sedum oregonense

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.

Rock outcrops, rocky slopes, lava fields. Flowering May–Sep. 500–2500 m. Casc, Col, Sisk. CA. Native.

Sedum oregonense has loose, spreading rosettes with visible internodes. Its flowers are white or cream-colored but may appear yellow due to the yellow anthers visible within. The stout stem leaves are round to oblong, differing in shape from the oblanceolate rosette leaves. No similar Sedum grow in the Cascades, but confusion may arise in southwestern Oregon. Sedum oblanceolatum has narrower leaves, denser rosettes, and a mealy waxiness that rubs off onto ones hands. Sedum laxum has dense rosettes and normally has pink flowers.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 605
Barbara Wilson, Richard Brainerd, Nick Otting
Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 604
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. leibergii, S. moranii, S. oblanceolatum, S. oreganum, 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 Gormania watsonii
Web links