108 



CRASSULACEAB 



G. SEDUM L. Stone-crop 



Ours perennial herbs. Flowers usually yellow but often white or reddish- 

 tinged, disposed in a cyme composed of about 2 or 3 racemose secund branches. 

 Petals 5, distinct or a little united at the base. Stamens 10. Carpels distinct or 

 nearly so, several-seeded. — Species about 150, all continents save Australia but 

 mostly north temperate zone. (Latin sedeo, to sit, on account of the lowly habit.) 

 Carpels widely diverg^cnt, their outer (and finally lower) edges almost horizontal or at right 

 angles with the pedicel; leaves becoming scarious upon drying; rootstocks horizontal, 

 usually branched, giving rise to two kinds of erect or ascending shoots: (a) flowering 

 stems (leafy below), and (b) short densely leafy branches which are deciduous and 

 propagating. 

 Leaves oblong to oblong-ovate, 3 to 6 lines long, broadest a little below the middle; Coast 



Ranges and s. Sierra Nevada 1. <S;. radiatum. 



Leaves linear-lanceolate, 5 to 11 lines long, broadest at the base; Lassen and Modoc Cos 



2. S. douglasii. 

 Carpels erect or suberect; leaves not becoming scarious upon drying (or slightly so at the base 

 in no. 3); plants commonly spreading by well-developed horizontal rootstocks; root- 

 stocks branching, the branches commonly ending in dense leaf -rosettes and so forming 

 mat-like plants. 



Leaves terete, green; leaf rosettes ovate 3. 8. stenopetalum. 



Leaves plane. 



Leaves mostly elliptic, not in rosettes; petals white; anthers purple 4. S. niveum. 



Leaves spatulate, in rosettes; anthers white. 



Rosettes with the apices of the leaves somewhat divergent and free ; root-crown pro- 

 ducing (from beneath rosette) 1 or few horizontal rootstocks each tipped 

 by a rosette. 



Petals distinct or nearly so, yellow or white ; cyme mostly flat-topped 



5. S. spathulifoUum. 

 Petals united % to % their length, white (or yellow and usually white-mar- 

 gined) ; cyme mostly elongated or thyrsoid 6. S. obtnsatum. 



Rosettes with the leaves very closely imbricated, the apices of the leaves with only the 

 upper side exposed; root-crown producing (from beneath rosette or lowest 

 leaf axils) several radiating runners each ending in a rosette....?. S. purdyi. 



1. S. radiatum Wats. Canon Sedum. (Fig. 145.) Flowering stems 3 to 7 

 inches high; sterile branchlets densely imbricated with leaves; leaves thin, flattened, 



oblong to oblong-ovate, 3 to 6 lines long and 

 1 to 1 1/2 lines wide, a little wider than the broad 

 sub-clasping base, white-membranous and 4 to 

 7-nerved on drying; petals oblong-acute, bright 

 yellow, widely spreading, 3 to 4 lines long; de- 

 hisced follicles with the inside of the tips shin- 

 ing white in extreme age. 



Rocky canon walls or stonj^ banks, 1500 to 

 4500 feet : Coast Ranges from Humboldt Co. to 

 Monterey Co.; s. Sierra Nevada (Tulare Co.). 

 June-July. It differs from S. douglasii Hook, 

 in its range and in the size and shape of its 

 leaves, but is manifestly a close relative of it. 



Locs. — South Yager Creek, Hmnboldt Co., Tracy 

 7726; Kinitz, upper Van Duzen River, Humboldt Co., 

 C. M. Wilder; Mail Ridge, s. Humboldt Co., Jepson 

 1890; Round Valley, Mendocino Co., Westerman; Idol 

 House, n. Mendocino Co., Jepson 1871; Elk Ridge, 

 Mendocino Co., Bolander 6565; Pope Valley grade, 

 Napa Co., K. Brandegee ; Lagunitas Creek, Maria Co., 

 T. Brandegee; Slick Rock, Giant Forest road, W. Fry 

 416; Cedar Creek, Sequoia Park, Jepson 610. 



Refs. — Sedttm radiatum Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 

 18:193 (1883), type loc. Gabilan Peak, Monterey Co., 

 Brewer 14^2,; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 265 (1901), ed. 

 2, 195 (1911), Man. 451 (1925). 



rig. 145. Sedxtm radiatum Wats, 

 a, habit, X V2; 6, fl., X iy2. 



