A GUIDE TO THE WILD FLOWERS 



III 



316. STONECROP. SEDUM. 



Fleshy or succulent herbs with alternate leaves (in 3's in 

 No. 317) and simple or branching stems. Leaves mostly thick 

 and fleshy, with or without teeth, in some species appearing 

 crowded (see No. 332). Flowers in terminal, sometimes i- 

 sided, clusters. Sepals 5, united. Petals 5, separated, often 

 pointed. Fruit a dry pod. {Crassidaccac.) Nine species are 

 known from the area. Besides the Wall-pepper (No. 332), 

 treated elsewhere, the following are distinguished thus : 

 Leaves in 3's or alternate; flowers white. 



317. Wild Stonfxrop. Scdiim tcrnatum. A low almost pros- 

 trate plant with erect or ascending flowering branches 3-8 

 in. high. Lower leaves mostly in 3's, the upper ones alternate, 

 all stalkless, about •)4 in- ^ong, without teeth. Flowers pink, 

 in a I -sided terminal, often 3-branched cluster. In rocky 

 woods. Conn, and N. J. to Georgia, and westward. May. 

 Leaves alternate ; flowers pink. 



318. American Orpine. Scdum tclcphioidcs. A slender 

 fleshy plant with bluish or purplish foliage scarcely 9 in. 

 tall. Leaves alternate, oval, usually coarsely toothed toward 

 the tip, narrowed toward the base, almost stalkless, about 

 i^ in. long and half as broad. Flowers in a terminal, almost 

 flat-topped cluster, not one-sided, pink. In dry rocky woods. 

 Southern Penn. and Maryland to western N. Y. and Indiana. 

 August. Fig. 318. A related European species, S. tripliyllum, 



