CRASSULACEAE

LXXII. CRASSULACEAE View in CoL 2

Annual, biennial or perennial herbs, rarely small shrubs. Leaves undivided, exstipulate, more or less succulent. Flowers regular, usually in cymes, less often in spikes or racemes or solitary in the leaf-axils. Sepals 3 to c. 20, united or free; petals as many, united or free; stamens hypogynous or epipetalous, equal in number to the petals or, more frequently, twice as many. Carpels superior, equal in number to the petals, free or slightly connate at the base, developing into follicles. Scale-like nectaries usually present between the stamens and carpels.

No really satisfactory basis for the division of the family into genera has yet been proposed; Berger’s treatment (in Engler, Natiirl. Pflanzenfam. ed. 2, 18a: 352^183 (1930)) has been followed with slight modifications.

1 Stamens equal in number to the petals

2 Leaves opposite, connate; petals 3-4 1. Crassula

2 Leaves not connate; petals 5 (rarely 4) (see also 3) 10. Sedum

1 Stamens twice as many as the petals

3 Corolla-tube longer than, or only slightly shorter than the lobes

4 Annual

5 Stamens and style included; corolla-tube nearly as wide as long 5. Mucizonia

5 Stamens and style exserted; corolla-tube very long and narrow 4. Pistorinia

4 Perennial

6 Leaves mostly cauline; inflorescence cymose 2. Bryophyllum

6 Leaves mostly basal; cauline leaves much smaller; inflorescence racemose 7 Basal leaves suborbicular, with long petioles 3. Umbilicus 7 Basal leaves oblong-spathulate, sessile 13. Rosularia

3 Petals free, or fused to form a tube for considerably less than half their length

8 Petals4 -5

9 Leaves mostly basal; cauline leaves much smaller; inflorescence racemose

10 Basal leaves petiolate, not spiny; corolla tubular, with erect lobes 3. Umbilicus

10 Basal leaves sessile, with a terminal spine; corolla-lobes spreading 12. Orostachys

9 Leaves mostly cauline; inflorescence cymose

11 Flowers usually 5-merous, hermaphrodite; rhizome slender and leafless, or absent 10. Sedum

11 Flowers usually 4-merous, unisexual; rhizome stout, with persistent scale-leaves 11. Rhodiola

8 Petalsmorethan5

12 Annual

13 Flowers yellow; leaves flat 9. Aichryson

13 Flowers pink, white or blue; leaves ± terete 10. Sedum

12 Perennial

14 Leaves subulate 10. Sedum

14 Leaves broad, flat on upper surface

15 Soft-wooded shrub with erect, perennial stems 8. Aeonium

15 Acaulescent in vegetative phase; flowering stems annual

16 Petals entire, patent 6. Sempervivum

16 Petals ± fimbriate, erect 7. Jovibarba