ORPINE FAMILY 



CRASSULACEAE 



STONECROP 



Sednm 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 

 which bear ascending leafy branches 

 3-8 inches high. The leaves are 

 oval, entire, fleshy and one-half to 

 I inch long; and the lower are in 

 whorls of 3. 



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 5 separate green pis- 

 tils. The many-seeded follicles are one-eighth inch long and 

 have a scale at the base. 



The Showy Stonecrop, Scdum pulc/iellum 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, Pcnthornm 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. 



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