SEDUM LACONICUM subsp. LACONICUM
Common Names:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Sedum (L) A name used by the Roman naturalist and philosopher
Pliny, reference to the plants habit of ''sitting'' on rocks etc.
Laconicum (L) From Lakonia, Peloponnese, S. Greece.
General description:- A dwarf plant, with very dense, globe-shaped rosettes.
Stems:-
1) Short, erect, flowering stems 4-15 cm, simple, bearing below the usually small
and crowded terminal cyme one or more small, subsidiary, axillary cymes of
1-3 flowers.
Leaves:-
1) Rosettes, (about 10cc diam.), of narrow leaves 5-8 mm, more or less terete,
broadly linear or narrowly ellipsoidal, acute with hyaline papillae at the apex.
Flowers:-
1) Petals, 3-5 mm, ending in an abrupt, short point or an apiculate-aristate, bright
yellow with a red mid-vein or red streaks.
Fruit:-
1) Follicles, erecto-patent, with white margins.
2) Seeds, pale brown.
Key features:-
1) Leaves, linear, oblong, narrowly elliptical or oblanceolate. hyaline papillae at the
apex
2) One or more small, axillary cymes of single flowers present on the flowering
stem below the terminal cyme.
Habitat:- Rocky crevices and ledges, usually in open woodland or meadows,
mainly on limestone. (0-)800-2300 m.
Distribution:- East Aegean Is., Greece, Crete, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey.
Limited distribution on Crete, currently known only from the three main massifs.
Flowering time:- May-July.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton