Sedum

KIERSTEADIAE Wilson & Brainerd, 2014

Synonyms :

Sedum obtusatum ssp. boreale R.T.Clausen (1942) / Sedum obtusatum var. boreale (R.T.Clausen) H.Ohba (2007)

Sedum subgenus Gormania section Gormania

Etymology : The name honours California botanist Julie Kierstead Nelson.

Distribution : USA : California (Klamath region).

Description :

Plants succulent, herbaceous, perennial.

Rhizomes and stolons to 15 cm long, 3 - 6 mm diameter.

Sterile rosettes often numerous.

Rosette leaves often loosely arranged with visible internodes, glaucous, flattened, broadly obovate to oblanceolate, cuneate at base, 12 - 32 x 5 - 18 mm, 1.2 - 5.3 times as long as wide, apex usually notched, sometimes obtuse or truncate.

Flowering shoots often reddish, 7.5 - 28.5 cm, nodding in bud, erect in flower and fruit. Leaves on flowering shoots usually pink to green, (4-) 11 - 19 x (2-) 5 - 9 mm, 1 - 3.7 times as long as wide, narrowly obovate, truncate at base, apex usually obtuse.

Inflorescences panicle-like cymes 4 - 13.6 x 2 - 3 (-4) cm, usually cylindrical, proximal branches solitary at nodes, ascending.

Flowers 10 - 30.

Calyx greenish, (8-) 15 - 45 % as long as the petals, free calyx lobes (0.5-) 2 - 4 (-6) mm long, acute.

Petals 6 - 8 (-12) mm long, light yellow with midribs usually pink or red dorsally, sometimes white ventrally, (sometimes also dorsally) when young, lower half sometimes red, entire petal eventually senescing red, becoming whitish or pale tan when dead. Upper half of petal blade narrow, spreading (70-) 80 - 90 (130)° from the flower axis at anthesis, apex acute, usually with subterminal mucro.

Stamens 10, shorter than or equaling petals; filaments white or yellow-green, aging red; anthers usually red, rusty, or dark orange aging purple or black, sometimes yellow aging light brown, becoming tan when dead and dried.

Cytology : 2n = 30

First published in J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 8(1):9-15. 2014.