Sedum album L.
white stonecrop
Almost prostrate, mat-forming, perennial herb with slender stems rooting freely at nodes and shortly ascending in distal part, minutely glandular-hairy when young. Lvs alternate, sessile, confined to erect part of stem, dense and loosely imbricate but not forming terminal rosettes, 3-6-(17) × 2-4 mm, 1-3 mm thick, broadly ellipsoid, ellipsoid-obovoid or oblong, subterete and slightly flattened on upper side, entire, glabrous, dark green, brownish green, reddish green or glaucescent; apex rounded. Infl. terminal, 5-15 cm high, a flattened or corymbose, rather dense, glabrous cyme 2-5 × 3-6 cm; bracts very small and not leaflike, often caducous. Fls numerous, with pedicels 1-2 mm long, not secund. Sepals equal, c. 1.5 mm long, broadly elliptic. Petals 5, patent, 3-4 × 1.2-1.7 mm, lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, white, sharply acute. Stamens c. 3 mm long; filaments white; anthers purple. Carpels and styles white, ageing pink. Scales ± semi-lunate or very broadly spathulate. Follicles pinkish or streaked with red, ± parallel. Seed 0.8-1 mm long, ± narrowly ellipsoid, longitudinally ribbed.
N.: Taipa (N. Auckland), Auckland, especially Rangitoto Id, Kaiaua (Firth of Thames), Wellington; S.: Nelson, Blenheim, many localities in Canterbury, Dunedin, a number of localities in C. Otago.
Europe, N. Africa, W. Asia 1959
Roadsides, railways, waste places, banks, rock walls, hillside slopes near gardens, riverbeds, especially prolific on dry shingle, gravel, lava and other volcanic rock, sometimes on sand and sandstone.
FL Dec-Mar.
White stonecrop is widely cultivated in N.Z. and must have escaped from gardens many times because it reproduces so profusely. Within gardens the sp. is usually a nuisance for on paths, garden walls and in rock gardens it is difficult to eradicate and is so prolific that it has a tendency to smother slower-growing plants. Although there are some differences in stem height and lf size owing to the degree of exposure to sunlight and moisture, the sp. is usually easy to distinguish from any other stonecrop growing wild in N.Z. One specimen from S. Auckland (CHR 308626, Miranda, Esler and Esler, 29.12.1976) differs considerably in having larger lvs, a much more leafy infl. rachis, stouter and prominently bracteate peduncles and pedicels, ± obtuse petals, and scarcely exserted, rather than conspicuously exserted stamens. It is possible that this specimen represents a related sp. in sect. Sedum.
