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

cream stonecrop, creamy stonecrop

broad-leaf stonecrop, Pacific stonecrop, spatula-leaf stonecrop

Habit Herbs, perennial, cespitose or not, glabrous. Herbs, perennial, mat-forming, glabrous.
Stems

rhizomes, horizontal, much-branched, bearing rosettes.

rhizomatous, procumbent or creeping, much-branched, bearing terminal rosettes.

Flowering shoots

erect, simple, (6–)10–28 cm;

leaf blades suborbiculate or obovate, base not spurred;

offsets not formed.

erect, simple, 3–14 cm;

leaf blades spatulate-oblong or elliptic-oblong, base not spurred;

offsets not formed.

Leaves

alternate, ascending to spreading, sessile to subsessile;

blade green, glaucous, not strongly pruinose, obovate or oblanceolate, subterete, 10–36 × 5–16 mm, base not spurred, not scarious, apex emarginate to retuse.

alternate, spreading, petiolate;

blade green, often glaucous or pruinose, spatulate, terete to laminar, 7–19 × 4.5–10 mm, base not spurred, not scarious, apex rounded or truncate, submucronate, (surfaces papillose marginally).

Inflorescences

panicles, 10–120-flowered, 3–20-branched;

branches not recurved, dichotomously forked;

bracts similar to leaves, smaller.

cymes, ca. 30-flowered, ca. 3-branched;

branches not recurved, forked;

bracts oblong-spatulate or linear, ca. 3 cm, base not spurred.

Pedicels

2–5 mm.

2–8 mm.

Flowers

5-merous;

sepals (persistent, closely appressed to corolla tube), erect, connate basally, greenish, ovate, equal, 3.2–3.5 × 1–3 mm, apex subacute;

petals (persistent until fruiting), erect basally, divergent apically, connate basally, creamy white, yellowish white, or pale yellow, elliptic-oblong or oblanceolate-oblong, cucullate, 5–9(–11.5) mm, apex abruptly pointed;

filaments pale yellow;

anthers yellow;

nectar scales white or yellow, subreniform.

5-merous;

sepals spreading to erect, connate basally, green or yellow-green, glaucous or pruinose, lanceolate, linear-lanceolate, oblong-ovate, or obovate, equal, ca. 2.5 × 1.5 mm, apex acute or obtuse;

petals widely spreading from short, erect base, distinct or slightly connate basally, yellow, linear to oblanceolate, not carinate, 4.5–9 mm, apex acute;

filaments yellow;

anthers yellow;

nectar scales yellow, reniform or nearly square.

Carpels

erect in fruit, distinct, brown, (strongly 5-veined).

divergent in fruit, connate basally, brown.

2n

= 90.

= 30.

Sedum oregonense

Sedum spathulifolium

Phenology Flowering spring–summer.
Habitat Gravel, mats of Selaginella or moss on rocky slopes and ledges, crevices of cliffs
Elevation 900-2200 m (3000-7200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; OR; WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

The mature carpels of Sedum spathulifolium have five ribs and prominent lips along the adaxial suture. The flowers are sweetly fragrant.

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

Key
1. Primary rosettes 2.5-3.7 cm diam.; leaf blades not pruinose, glaucous or not, 1.4-2.1 mm thick; flowers 1.2-1.6 cm diam.
var. spathulifolium
1. Primary rosettes 1.5-2.1 cm diam.; leaf blades pruinose, not glaucous, 2.1-2.5 mm thick; flowers 1-1.2 cm diam.
var. pruinosum
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 220. FNA vol. 8, p. 222.
Parent taxa Crassulaceae > Sedum 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. laxum, 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. 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
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. laxum, 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. stelliforme, S. stenopetalum, S. ternatum, S. villosum, S. wrightii
Subordinate taxa
S. spathulifolium var. pruinosum, S. spathulifolium var. spathulifolium
Synonyms Cotyledon oregonensis
Name authority (S. Watson) M. Peck: Man. Higher Pl. Oregon, 361. (1941) Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 227. (1832)
Web links