ORPINE FAMILY CRASSULACEAE 
STONECROP 
Sedum ternatum Michx. 
Most members of the Orpine family are succulent, their 
leaves thick and fleshy. Probably the most familiar 
examples are the Live-forever and the Hen and Chickens, 
which are frequently planted in 
gardens and cemeteries. 
This rare member of the family 
ranges in Illinois between Alexander 
and Kankakee counties, and is 
extremely local from Connecticut 
to Michigan and from Georgia to 
Tennessee and Missouri. It is a 
| perennial by creeping rootstocks 
en which bear ascending leafy branches 
sie 3-8 inches high. The leaves are 
- as oval, entire, fleshy and one-half to 
1 inch long; and the lower are in 
a : whorls of 3. 
7 Each branch terminates in 2-4 
palmate racemes which are spread- 
ing or recurved in flower in May. 
The white flowers, one-half inch 
broad, have 5 greenish sepals, 5 
acute petals, 10 long exserted stamens and § separate green pis- 
tils. The many-seeded follicles are one-eighth inch long and 
have a scale at the base. 
The Showy Stonecrop, Sedum pulchellum Michx., is a rare and 
fine species found on rocks of Hardin, Pope and Johnson counties 
near the Ohio river. It may be immediately known by its de- 
cumbent or trailing habit, its very numerous small cylindric leaves, 
which are slightly clasping, and in particular by the three-quarter- 
inch flowers of rose-purple varying to white, which are borne in 
long-armed spreading cymes. 
The Ditch Stonecrop, Penthorum sedoides L., is not fleshy like 
the rest of the family. It is an upright weedlike perennial which 
grows in unshaded wet places from New Brunswick to Florida 
and west to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas. The stem 
is 6-24 inches tall and usually branched and somewhat angled near 
the top but round below. The yellowish green calyx is 5-lobed, 
and petals are usually absent. There are 10 stamens. The 5 
pistils are united at the base and in fruit form a 5-beaked many- 
seeded capsule that opens by 5 slits. 
138 
