LAXUM (Britton) Berger, 1930
Synonyms :
Gormania laxa Britton (1903)
Cotyledon brittoniana Fedde (1904)
Echeveria gormanii Nelson & Macbride (1913)
Sedum jepsonii (Butterfield (1936)
Sedum laxum ssp. typicum Clausen (1942)
Distribution : Western USA
Description (by 't Hart & Bleij in IHSP, 2003) :
Glabrous perennial herbs with stout branched rootstocks forming terminal rosettes.
Leaves alternate, oblanceolate, spatulate or obovate, rounded, emarginate or retuse, 14,5 - 36 x 7,5 - 17 mm, glaucous or green.
Inflorescences : Flowering branches 7 - 26 cm, inflorescences elongate cymes with 3 or more monochasial branches, pedicels 0,6 - 6,3 mm.
FIowers 5-merous, sepals broadly sessile, basally slightly connate, ovate or lanceolate, acute, rarely obtuse, pale green, ± 3,5 x 2 mm, petals basally connate, lanceolate-oblong, oblanceolate-oblong or elliptic-oblong, obtuse, shortly mucronate or aristate, whitish to pink, ± 9 mm, basally erect, divergent above the middle, filaments white, greenish-white or pink, anthers red or yellow.
Ray Stephenson (Sedum, Cultivated Stonecrops, 1994, pp 200 - 202):
Common name : Rose-flowered stonecrop
From the list of synonyms, one can see some of the controversy that this polymorphic species has caused. Fusion of petals for about half their length is not a feature usually associated with Sedum. Very rarely seen in Europe, this pink- or white-flowered species is highly succulent with relatively few exceptionally turgid leaves clustering in basal 4-cm (2-in) rosettes. Stems of S. laxum rise from a fleshy rootstock. Offsets often have opposite-decussate leaves at first as new rosettes form. Glabrous inflorescences of late summer can be very long, but are usually about 15 cm (6 in) long. Branches of inflorescence are incurved at first, and flowers have erect petals with as much as 3/5 cohesion.