FNA: Crassula argentea vs. Crassula aquatica

	Crassula argentea	Crassula aquatica
	jade plant	aquatic pygmy weed, common pygmyweed, pigmyweed, pygmy-weed, river-leek, water pygmy weed, wrinkle-seed pygmyweed
Habit	Plants terrestrial, perennial.	Plants aquatic, sometimes stranded, annual.
Stems	erect, silvery in age, moderately branched, 30–50 cm.	decumbent, later ± erect if stranded, reddish in age, usually branched at base, to 14 cm, (rooting at basal nodes).
Leaf	blades obovate, 20–70 mm, apex obtuse to retuse.	blades oblanceolate to linear, 2–6 mm, apex acute.
Inflorescences	compact, flowers 2 per node.	lax; flowers 1 per node.
Pedicels	8–12 mm.	0.5–20 mm.
Flowers	4-merous; sepals (erect), triangular, 0.5 mm, apex acute; petals oblong-lanceolate, ca. 10 mm.	4-merous; sepals ovate to oblong, 0.5–1.5 mm, apex obtuse to rounded; petals ovate to oblong, 1–2 mm.
Seeds	not seen.	oblong-ellipsoid, (0.3–)0.4–0.5(–0.6) × 0.1–0.3 mm, not papillate, dull, minutely rugulose.
Follicles	erect, seed number not known, ovoid; old follicles erect, boat-shaped.	erect, 6–17-seeded, oblong; old follicles spreading, flat.
2n		= 42 (Iceland).

	Crassula argentea	Crassula aquatica
Phenology	Flowering Mar–Jun.	Flowering late spring–summer.
Habitat	Edges of lagoons, sand dunes, disturbed areas	Coastal marshes and brackish mudflats, vernal pools, muddy margins of ponds and streams
Elevation	0-100 m (0-300 ft)	0-3000 m (0-9800 ft)
Distribution	CA; s Africa [Introduced in North America]	AK; AL; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DE; GA; ID; LA; MA; MD; ME; MN; MT; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OK; OR; PA; TX; UT; VT; WA; WY; BC; NB; NF; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; YT; SPM; Mexico; n Eurasia [WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county map]
Discussion	Crassula argentea is reported from Los Angeles and San Diego counties. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)	The typical form of Crassula aquatica, with very short fruiting pedicels, grows chiefly in coastal salt marsh. It is rare and widely scattered in Alaska and Canada (W. J. Cody 1954), scarcely more common southward. M. Bywater and G. E. Wickens (1984) separated C. saginoides by pedicels elongate in fruit, sometimes to ca. 2 cm. It grows mostly inland and sometimes to 3000 meters, but from the specimens that they annotated, the ranges are not distinct. N. L. Britton and J. N. Rose (1905) and W. L. Jepson (1923–1925) have separated it, at least varietally, under other names, but most authors have included it without comment or at most have called it doubtfully distinct. I call it merely a phase of C. aquatica not needing a formal name (R. V. Moran 1992b). A typical strand plant is depicted in the lower left corner of the illustration panel on this page. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source	FNA vol. 8, p. 155.	FNA vol. 8, p. 153.
Parent taxa	Crassulaceae > Crassula	Crassulaceae > Crassula
Sibling taxa	C. aquatica, C. colligata, C. connata, C. drummondii, C. longipes, C. multicava, C. solieri, C. tetragona, C. tillaea, C. viridis	C. argentea, C. colligata, C. connata, C. drummondii, C. longipes, C. multicava, C. solieri, C. tetragona, C. tillaea, C. viridis
Synonyms		Tillaea aquatica, C. saginoides, Tillaeastrum aquaticum
Name authority	Thunberg: Nova Acta Phys.-Med. Acad. Caes. Leop.-Carol. Nat. Cur. 6: 329, 337. 1778 ,	(Linnaeus) Schönland: in H. G. A. Engler and K. Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 51[III,2a]: 37. 1890 ,
Web links	Local floras: CA Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search	Local floras: BC, CA, OR, WA Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, Go Botany, LA Plants, MD Biodiversity, MN Wildflowers, PNW Herbaria WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search

Crassula aquatica

jade plant

aquatic pygmy weed, common pygmyweed, pigmyweed, pygmy-weed, river-leek, water pygmy weed, wrinkle-seed pygmyweed

Habit

Plants terrestrial, perennial.

Plants aquatic, sometimes stranded, annual.

Stems

erect, silvery in age, moderately branched, 30–50 cm.

decumbent, later ± erect if stranded, reddish in age, usually branched at base, to 14 cm, (rooting at basal nodes).

Leaf

blades obovate, 20–70 mm, apex obtuse to retuse.

blades oblanceolate to linear, 2–6 mm, apex acute.

Inflorescences

compact, flowers 2 per node.

lax;

flowers 1 per node.

Pedicels

8–12 mm.

0.5–20 mm.

Flowers

4-merous;

sepals (erect), triangular, 0.5 mm, apex acute;

petals oblong-lanceolate, ca. 10 mm.

4-merous;

sepals ovate to oblong, 0.5–1.5 mm, apex obtuse to rounded;

petals ovate to oblong, 1–2 mm.

Seeds

not seen.

oblong-ellipsoid, (0.3–)0.4–0.5(–0.6) × 0.1–0.3 mm, not papillate, dull, minutely rugulose.

Follicles

erect, seed number not known, ovoid;

old follicles erect, boat-shaped.

erect, 6–17-seeded, oblong;

old follicles spreading, flat.

= 42 (Iceland).

Crassula aquatica

Phenology

Flowering Mar–Jun.

Flowering late spring–summer.

Habitat

Edges of lagoons, sand dunes, disturbed areas

Coastal marshes and brackish mudflats, vernal pools, muddy margins of ponds and streams

Elevation

0-100 m (0-300 ft)

0-3000 m (0-9800 ft)

Distribution

CA; s Africa [Introduced in North America]

AK; AL; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DE; GA; ID; LA; MA; MD; ME; MN; MT; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OK; OR; PA; TX; UT; VT; WA; WY; BC; NB; NF; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; YT; SPM; Mexico; n Eurasia

[WildflowerSearch map]

[BONAP county map]

Discussion

Crassula argentea is reported from Los Angeles and San Diego counties.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

The typical form of Crassula aquatica, with very short fruiting pedicels, grows chiefly in coastal salt marsh. It is rare and widely scattered in Alaska and Canada (W. J. Cody 1954), scarcely more common southward. M. Bywater and G. E. Wickens (1984) separated C. saginoides by pedicels elongate in fruit, sometimes to ca. 2 cm. It grows mostly inland and sometimes to 3000 meters, but from the specimens that they annotated, the ranges are not distinct. N. L. Britton and J. N. Rose (1905) and W. L. Jepson (1923–1925) have separated it, at least varietally, under other names, but most authors have included it without comment or at most have called it doubtfully distinct. I call it merely a phase of C. aquatica not needing a formal name (R. V. Moran 1992b). A typical strand plant is depicted in the lower left corner of the illustration panel on this page.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source

FNA vol. 8, p. 155.

FNA vol. 8, p. 153.

Parent taxa

Crassulaceae > Crassula

Sibling taxa

C. aquatica, C. colligata, C. connata, C. drummondii, C. longipes, C. multicava, C. solieri, C. tetragona, C. tillaea, C. viridis

C. argentea, C. colligata, C. connata, C. drummondii, C. longipes, C. multicava, C. solieri, C. tetragona, C. tillaea, C. viridis

Synonyms

Tillaea aquatica, C. saginoides, Tillaeastrum aquaticum

Name authority

Thunberg: Nova Acta Phys.-Med. Acad. Caes. Leop.-Carol. Nat. Cur. 6: 329, 337. 1778 ,

(Linnaeus) Schönland: in H. G. A. Engler and K. Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 51[III,2a]: 37. 1890 ,

Web links

Local floras: BC, CA, OR, WA
Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, Go Botany, LA Plants, MD Biodiversity, MN Wildflowers, PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database
LBJ Wildflower Center
SEINet
Plants of the World Online
Encyclopedia of Life
Wikipedia
Google Image Search

Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

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Crassula argentea

Crassula aquatica

Crassula argentea

Crassula aquatica