Volume IV (1988) - Flora of New Zealand Naturalised Pteridophytes, Gymnosperms, Dicotyledons
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Sedum acre L.

*S. acre L., Sp. Pl.  432  (1753)

stonecrop

Glabrous, often mat-forming, perennial herb, with creeping stems freely rooting at nodes and numerous short erect sterile and flowering stems. Lvs alternate, sessile, densely arranged up the erect stems, imbricate but not in terminal rosettes, 4-5 × 2.5-3 mm, c. 1.5 mm thick, ± broadly cordate- ovate, convex above and below, entire, green or yellowish green but old lvs persisting and white; apex obtuse. Infl. terminal, < 1.5 cm long, a short open cyme 0.5-3 cm across and with 1-3 branches, each branch with up to 4 fls and a leaflike bract. Fls sessile or subsessile, somewhat secund. Sepals unequal, 3-4 mm long, broad-ovate and very similar to lvs. Petals 5, ± patent, 6.5-7.5 × c. 3 mm, ovate-elliptic, yellow, acute. Stamens 5-6 mm long, yellow. Carpels and styles yellow. Scales semi-lunate to ± rectangular. Follicles yellow, widely divergent. Seed 0.5-0.8 mm long, ± narrowly ellipsoid or ellipsoid-obovoid, longitudinally ribbed.

N.: N. Auckland, Auckland, southwards to Wellington, mainly E. areas; S.: Nelson, Marlborough, S. to Dunedin, especially parts of the Canterbury Plains and C. Otago.

Europe, W. Asia, N. Africa 1904

Coastal cliffs, behind beaches, on walls and banks, roadsides, riverbeds, railway tracks and embankments, waste places in and around settlements, generally on gravel, shingle, sand, rocks and most light porous substrates, sea level to nearly 1500 m.

FL Nov-Mar.

Stonecrop is the commonest Sedum sp. wild in N.Z. and in suitable habitats can carpet the ground. It is very attractive when covered with yellow fls in summer. The small, almost scale-like lvs distinguish this sp. from all other wild sedums in N.Z. except the rare S. liebmannianum which is taller, has a more diffuse habit, and white fls. In addition, the acrid taste of S. acre, which gave rise to the alternative common name biting stonecrop, is very distinctive. The sp. forms seeds freely, unlike most other naturalised stone-crops.

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