Sedum stenopetalum |
Sedum stenopetalum ssp. ciliosum |
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wormleaf stonecrop |
white wormleaf stonecrop |
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Habit | Plants annual, biennial, or perennial, tufted to spreading, usually glabrous. | |
Stems | decumbent, branched, with terminal rosettes. |
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Flowering shoots | erect, branched, 10–43 cm; stem leaves alternate, linear, with basal scarious spurs and producing offset rosettes in their axils; bulbils present. |
erect, unbranched, 10–19 cm. |
Leaves | rosette leaves persistent, spreading to erect, narrowly oblanceolate; narrow and often rounded in cross section, 4.3–13.8 × 1.4–2.7 mm, green to red, bases with small spur; margins sometimes papillose-ciliate; papillae 0.1–0.15 mm; tips acuminate or attenuate; surfaces not glaucous, dried leaves strongly keeled. |
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Inflorescences | solitary flowers or small cymes with 9–15(25) flowers, mostly 3-branched; primary branches sometimes dichotomously forked; bracts like other leaves but smaller. |
branches sometimes dichotomously forked, 11–22 cm; pedicels to 1 mm, sometimes ciliate, papillose. |
Flowers | (3)5(8)-parted; sepals distinct, lanceolate to ovate, 2–3.7 × 0.8–1.7 mm, yellow, yellow-green; greenish, white, or cream-colored; tips acute or acuminate; petals spreading horizontally; distinct, lanceolate to elliptic; widest at or below middle, 5.4–11 mm, yellow or white with green or brown; keel white; tips obtuse to long-acuminate, sometimes apiculate; filaments yellow or white; anthers yellow; ovaries glandular-pustulose. |
5-parted; sepals 1.5–3.5 × 0.8–2 mm; petals white or cream-colored, often drying yellowish, 7–11 mm; tips acute with mucronate appendage; filaments white; anthers yellow. |
Fruits | widely spreading when mature, fused near base, light green to brown, papillose, rarely glandular-pustulose. |
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2n | =64. |
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Sedum stenopetalum |
Sedum stenopetalum ssp. ciliosum |
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Distribution | ||
Discussion | Western North America. 2 subspecies. Sedum stenopetalum is easily identified by its linear leaves, and by the small rosettes in the axils of all or most of the leaves on the flowering stems. These rosettes may bear more or less deformed, petal-less, terminal flowers. Because plants usually grow from overwintering rosettes that are independent of the parent plant, they usually appear biennial but can be considered clones of long-lived perennials. Plants with a single, terminal flower (sometimes replaced by a rosette), have been segregated as S. stenopetalum ssp./var. monanthum. The range of this putative taxon is completely overlapped by the typical form, and the two are sometimes found in a single population. |
Talus, rocks along creeks, cliffs. Flowering May–Jul. 100–1200 m. Casc, Sisk. Native. Endemic to Oregon. White to cream-colored flowers distinguish this species from the other small Sedum except for S. radiatum ssp. depauperatum, which lacks axillary rosettes on the flowering stems. |
Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 606 Barbara Wilson, Richard Brainerd, Nick Otting |
Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 606 Barbara Wilson, Richard Brainerd, Nick Otting |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Synonyms | Sedum douglasii | Sedum ciliosum, Sedum douglasii ssp. ciliosum, Sedum radiatum var. ciliosum |
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