A rather large family, widely distributed; odd-looking, mostly very
succulent herbs, with smooth, fleshy leaves and stems, without
stipules; flowers in clusters; sepals, petals, pistils, and stamens,
all of the same number, usually four or five, sometimes the stamens
twice as many; ovary superior; receptacle with honey-bearing scales,
one behind each pistil; pistils separate, developing into small dry
pods, containing few or many, minute seeds. Some of these plants look
like tiny cabbages and we are all familiar with their tight little
rosettes in the formal garden-beds of hotels and railway stations,
where they are so stiff and unattractive that we hardly recognize them
when we find them looking exceedingly pretty in their natural homes.
The Latin name means "thick."
There are many kinds of Sedum, no one kind very widely distributed;
fleshy herbs; leaves usually alternate; flowers star-like, often in
one-sided clusters; stamens and pistils sometimes in different flowers
on different plants; sepals and petals four or five; stamens eight or
ten, on the calyx, the alternate ones usually attached to the petals;
styles usually short. The Latin name means "to sit," because these
plants squat on the ground, and Stonecrop is from their fondness for
rocks.
[Sidenote: =Douglas Stonecrop=
_Sèdum Douglásii_
=Yellow
Spring, summer
Northwest=]
This makes beautiful golden patches, on dry slopes or more or less open
hilltops, usually among limestone rocks. The reddish stems are from
six to ten inches tall, the leaves are rather long and narrow, thick
but flat, forming pretty pale-green rosettes, more or less tinged with
pink and yellow, and the pretty starry flowers are three-quarters of an
inch across, bright-yellow, with greenish centers, the stamens giving a
feathery appearance.
[Sidenote: =Yosemite Stonecrop=
_Sèdum Yosemiténse_
=Yellow
Summer
California=]
On moss-covered rocks, moistened by the glistening spray blowing from
the Yosemite waterfalls, we find these beautiful plants, covering the
stones with a brilliant, many-colored carpet. The flowers are stars of
brightest gold, about half an inch across and delicately scented, and
form flat-topped clusters, three or four inches across. The upper
part of the stalk, which is about six inches tall, and the upper leaves
are delicate bluish-green, but both stem and leaves shade to vivid
scarlet at the base. Spreading out on the ground from the base of the
stem in all directions are numerous little runners, each bearing at the
end a small rosette of thick, blue-green leaves, forming a beautiful
contrast to the vivid color of flowers and stems. The leaves and
runners are very brittle and break off at a touch.
[Illustration: Douglas Stone-crop--S. Douglasii