SEDUM LACONICUM subsp. LACONICUM

Family:- CRASSULACEAE/S. ACRE Group

Common Names:- None

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.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

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