Sedum spectabile Boreau
Glabrous, deciduous, perennial, clump-forming herb with erect annual stems, to c. 40 cm high. Lvs opposite, subsessile or with broad petioles to 1 cm long, distributed along stems (excluding very small overwintering bud rosettes at ground level), not or scarcely imbricate, to 9 × 7 cm and c. 1 mm thick, broadly elliptic or elliptic-ovate, flat, green or glaucescent, sinuate or distantly and broadly crenulate; apex rounded or obtuse. Infl. terminal, erect, 7-13 cm across, usually 8-12 cm high, corymbose-paniculate, bracteate, very flat, with few primary branches and many peduncles. Fls very numerous, with pedicels 2-5 mm long, not secund. Sepals equal, 2-3 mm long, triangular or triangular- lanceolate. Petals 5, ± incurved, 5.5-8.5 × 1.5-2 mm, lanceolate, pink, acute or subacute. Stamens 6-11 mm long; filaments pink; anthers deep crimson. Carpels and styles pink. Scales linear-spathulate to oblong or oblong-obovate. Follicles dark crimson, ± parallel. Seed c. 1 mm long, obovoid, with faint longitudinal ribs.
N.: Wellington; S.: Nelson, Christchurch.
Japan, China, Korea 1988
Behind beaches, waste places, street gutters and around rubbish dumps.
FL Feb-Apr.
S. spectabile is an abundantly cultivated sp. in private and public gardens in most areas of N.Z. and tolerates a very wide range of climatic and soil conditions. It is also often grown indoors. Wild plants are often smaller than cultivated ones. The fl. colour varies from pale pink to rose among cvs; probably many cultivated plants correspond to cv. 'Brillant' with deep pink fls; it is uncertain whether any specimens from wild plants represent this cv. but as most wild plants result from vegetative reproduction some probably do. S. spectabile is very distinct from any other sp. mentioned or described here because it is a large, clump-forming, summer green perennial with a thick, almost woody roostock, erect, annual stems and large, thin, toothed lvs. Most of these characters are typical of sect. Telephium Gray to which this sp. belongs.
