Sedum Sedum, L.

48. S. annuum L. View in CoL , Sp. Pl. 432 (1753)

(incl. 5. grisebachii Boiss. ).

Glabrous annual or biennial, often spotted or streaked with red; stem branched from the base with ascending, eventually flexuous branches 4-12 cm long. Leaves c. 6 mm, alternate, distant, linear-oblong, thick but flattened on both surfaces, with a whitish, truncate spur. Flowers 5-merous, subsessile or on short pedicels, in a lax, compound cyme. Petals oblanceolate, acute to acuminate, twice as long as the sepals, yellow. Stamens 10. Follicles green or red, stellate-patent. 2/z = 22. N. Europe, and in most of the mountain-ranges of C. & S. Europe. Al Au Bu Co Cr Cz Fe Ga Ge Gr He Hs Is It Ju No Rm Rs (N, B, W) Su.

Normally biennial in Fennoscandia; apparently annual in C. Europe. A variety ( var. perdurans Murb. ) has been reported from the Balkan and Carpathian mountains in which the decumbent branches root on touching the soil and thus transform the plant into a perennial, but the status of this plant is open to question.