202 CRASSULACEAE (ORPINE FAMILY) 
COMMON OPINE OR LIVE-FOREVER 
Sedum purptreum, Tausch. 
(Sedum Teléphium, 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. é 
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.) 
Fie. 144. — Com- 
mon Orpine or Live~- 
forever (Sedum pur- Deep cutting in midsummer, salt or carbolic 
Means of control 
i 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 
