202 CRASSULACEAE (ORPINE FAMILY) 



COMMON OPINE OR LIVE-FOREVER 



Sedum purpiireum, Tausch. 

 (Sedum Telephium, L.) 



Other English names: Live-long, Aaron's Rod, Purse Plant, Pud- 

 ding-bags. 



Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds, by tubers, and by 

 rooting at the joints. 



Time of bloom :' June to September. 



Seed-time: August to October. 



Range: Quebec to Ontario and Michigan, southward to Maryland. 



Habitat: Fields, roadsides, waste places. 



An escape from gardens, and a most pernicious weed when out of 

 bounds. The tuberous, fleshy, white roots are attached to the 

 stems by small necks, and if even a very little 

 one is broken off it sprouts a stalk and con- 

 tinues to thrive; broken stalks become slips, 

 which put forth roots and form new plants. 



Stem six inches to two feet in height, round, 

 stout, smooth, erect, very leafy, often purplish. 

 Leaves alternate, long obovate or the upper 

 ones oval, thick, light green, bluntly toothed, 

 sessile or the lowermost with petioles. By 

 careful lateral pressure with the finger-tips 

 the two surfaces of a leaf may be separated, 

 making a " purse," or " pudding-bag." Flowers 

 purple, in a dense, compound cyme at the 

 summit of the stalk; each blossom about a 

 half-inch broad, with five petals, rather thick, 

 ovate, acute, twice as long as the sepals ; sta- 

 mens ten ; carpels five, tipped with a per- 

 sistent style, very short. Seeds small, seldom 

 produced, the plant spreading almost entirely 

 by its tuberous rootstocks. (Fig. .144.) 



FIG. 144. Com- , r , . , 



mon Orpine or Live- Means of control 



forever (Sedum pur- Deep cutting in midsummer, salt or carbolic 



acid being applied to the shorn surfaces. Sheep 



will graze the plants down, particularly if strewn with a little 



salt. There is a fungous disease that attacks and kills the 



