bio.wikisort.org - Plant

Sedum hispanicum, the Spanish stonecrop,[1] is a species of plant in the family Crassulaceae.

Sedum hispanicum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Order:	Saxifragales
Family:	Crassulaceae
Genus:	Sedum
Species:	S. hispanicum
Binomial name
Sedum hispanicum L.

Description

Annual, 5–15 cm, glabrous or somewhat pubescent. Stems branching. Leaves alternate, 7–10 mm, linear, rounded. Flowers usually 6-merous, sometimes 7-9-merous, in unilateral cymes. Sepals ovate-acute. Petals white, with a purple midrib, 5–7 mm, lanceolate, acuminate. Carpels stellate.

Flowering

March–June.

Habitat

Rocks.

Distribution

Coast, lower, middle and upper mountains, Beqaa, Antilebanon.

Geographic area

Syria, Lebanon, the Palestine region, Western Asia, the Balkans, Italy, and Switzerland.

Notwithstanding its specific name this stonecrop is not found in Spain. Sedum is the Latin name of the adjoining genus, Sempervivum, houseleek. It is derived from sedare, to appease, to tranquillize, since the houseleek cultivated on housetops was supposed to take away the thunder, or probably because the crushed leaves used in plasters have a sedative action.[2]

References

• Georges Tohme& Henriette Tohme, IIIustrated Flora of Lebanon, National Council For Scientific Research, Second Edition 2014.

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