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rose-flower stonecrop

Habit Herbs, perennial, cespitose or not, glabrous.
Stems

root-stocks, ascending, much-branched, bearing rosettes.

Flowering shoots

erect or decumbent, simple or branched, 4–30(–40) cm;

leaf blades oblanceolate, spatulate, obovate, or suborbiculate, base not spurred;

offsets not formed.

Leaves

alternate, erect to spreading, sessile;

blade green, glaucous or not, not pruinose, oblanceolate, spatulate, or obovate, subterete or somewhat flattened, 10–50 × (4.5–)6–33 mm, base not spurred, not scarious, apex truncate to rounded or obtuse, emarginate or barely notched.

Inflorescences

elongate, paniculate cymes, 12–80-flowered, monochasially 3+-branched;

branches not recurved, 2-forked;

bracts similar to leaves, smaller.

Pedicels

0.6–6.3 mm.

Flowers

5-merous;

sepals erect, (closely appressed to corolla tube), slightly connate basally, pale green, ovate or lanceolate, equal, (2–)2.6–5.1 × 2 mm, apex acute or subacute, (rarely obtuse in var. flavidum);

petals basally erect, divergent in distal 1/2, connate basally, pink, pinkish white, or white to yellowish white, lanceolate-oblong, oblanceolate-oblong, or elliptic-oblong, not carinate, 4–11 mm, apex obtuse, shortly mucronate or aristate;

filaments white, greenish white, or pink;

anthers red, reddish purple, red-brown, or yellow;

nectar scales white, yellow, or pink, reniform or transversely oblong.

Carpels

erect in fruit, distinct, brown.

Sedum laxum

Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 5 (5 in the flora).

Sedum laxum is unusual in forming offsets in axils of rosette leaves rather than on a rootstock or creeping stem.

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

Key
1. Flowering shoot leaf bases clasping stems.
var. heckneri
1. Flowering shoot leaf bases not clasping stems
→ 2
2. Petals pale yellow or white with pink mid- veins; sepal apices obtuse.
var. flavidum
2. Petals pink or white; sepal apices acute
→ 3
3. Flowering shoot leaf blades suborbiculate.
var. eastwoodiae
3. Flowering shoot leaf blades spatulate to oblanceolate
→ 4
4. Leaf blades 9-17 mm wide
var. laxum
4. Leaf blades 17-33 mm wide.
var. latifolium
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 218.
Parent taxa Crassulaceae > Sedum
Sibling taxa
S. acre, S. albomarginatum, S. album, S. annuum, S. borschii, S. cockerellii, S. debile, S. divergens, S. glaucophyllum, S. havardii, S. hispanicum, S. lanceolatum, S. leibergii, S. lineare, S. mexicanum, S. moranii, S. nanifolium, S. nevii, S. niveum, S. nuttallii, S. oblanceolatum, S. obtusatum, S. ochroleucum, S. oreganum, S. oregonense, S. praealtum, S. pulchellum, S. pusillum, S. radiatum, S. robertsianum, S. rupestre, S. rupicola, S. sarmentosum, S. sexangulare, S. spathulifolium, S. stelliforme, S. stenopetalum, S. ternatum, S. villosum, S. wrightii
Subordinate taxa
S. laxum var. eastwoodiae, S. laxum var. flavidum, S. laxum var. heckneri, S. laxum var. latifolium, S. laxum var. laxum
Synonyms Gormania laxa
Name authority (Britton) A. Berger: in H. G. A. Engler et al., Nat. Pflanzenfam. ed. 2, 18a: 451. (1930)
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