Sedum spathulifolium |
Sedum pulchellum |
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broad-leaf stonecrop, Pacific stonecrop, spatula-leaf stonecrop |
widow's cross |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, mat-forming, glabrous. | Herbs, annual or perennial (by formation of side shoots), rarely biennial, multi-stemmed from base, glabrous. | ||||
Stems | rhizomatous, procumbent or creeping, much-branched, bearing terminal rosettes. |
ascending, simple or branched, sometimes bearing rosettes. |
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Flowering shoots | erect, simple, 3–14 cm; leaf blades spatulate-oblong or elliptic-oblong, base not spurred; offsets not formed. |
erect, simple, 6–23 cm; leaf blades linear, base with 2 sagittate spurs (unique in this species); offsets not formed. |
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Leaves | 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). |
alternate, spreading, sessile; blade pale yellow-green, not glaucous, linear to oblanceolate or spatulate, subterete, 5–32 × 1.5–5 mm, base sagittately short-spurred, not scarious, apex obtuse to rounded, (surfaces papillose in rosette). |
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Inflorescences | cymes, ca. 30-flowered, ca. 3-branched; branches not recurved, forked; bracts oblong-spatulate or linear, ca. 3 cm, base not spurred. |
cymes, 10–40-flowered, 3-branched; branches secund or recurved, not forked; bracts absent or similar to leaves, smaller. |
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Pedicels | 2–8 mm. |
to 1 mm. |
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Flowers | 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. |
4(–7)-merous; sepals erect, distinct, light green, linear-lanceolate, unequal, 1.3–5.8 × 0.5–1.5 mm, apex acute or obtuse; petals erect or subdivergent, distinct, white to purple, narrowly linear-lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, carinate and slightly channeled basally, 4–10 mm, apex acute or obtuse; filaments white or pinkish; anthers red or purple; nectar scales white, pinkish white, or yellow, square. |
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Carpels | divergent in fruit, connate basally, brown. |
spreading in fruit, distinct, light brown. |
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2n | = 30. |
= 22, ca. 42. |
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Sedum spathulifolium |
Sedum pulchellum |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–early summer. | |||||
Habitat | Areas of flat rocks, especially openings in cedar glades, ledges of cliffs, and bluffs, in shallow soil or in living mats of moss on rocks, often on limestone, sandstone, and chert | |||||
Elevation | 90-500 m (300-1600 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
CA; OR; WA; BC
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AL; AR; GA; IL; KS; KY; MO; MS; OH; OK; TN; TX
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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.) |
Sedum pulchellum is found in eastern North America from the Appalachian Ridge and Valley Province in northwestern Georgia and eastern Tennessee, westward through the southern Cumberland Plateau in northern Alabama and southeastern Tennessee, across the interior low plateaus of southern Illinois and central Kentucky and Tennessee, the till plains of Missouri, the Ozark plateaus of Arkansas and Missouri, and the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma, to the Osage Plains of Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 8, p. 222. | FNA vol. 8, p. 204. | ||||
Parent taxa | Crassulaceae > Sedum | Crassulaceae > Sedum | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Chetyson pulchellum, Chetyson vigilimontis, S. vigilimontis | |||||
Name authority | Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 227. (1832) | Michaux: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 277. (1803) | ||||
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