MICROSTACHYUM (Kotschy) Boissier, 1872

Synonym : Umbilicus microstachyus  Kotschy (1865).

 

Distribution : Cyprus (Troodos Mts.) ; crevices of igneous rocks, 1500 - 1900 m.

 

 

Description (according to IHSP, 2003) :

 

Monocarpic herbs, erect, (9-) 25 - 40 cm with basal flat generally solitary lax rosettes.

 

Leaves shrivelling soon after anthesis, flat, linear-spatulate, 30 - 60 x 5 - 12 mm, subacute or obtuse, green in the shade, reddish in the sun, weakly glandular-pubescent, margins entire, narrowly scarious.

 

Inflorescences : Stem leaves numerous, shorter than those of the rosette but broader, densely glandular-pubescent, not obviously diminishing in size from bottom to top and continuing as bracts into the lower inflorescence parts ; inflorescences narrow usually unbranched cylindrical panicles, 6 - 13 (-25) cm, axis densely glandular.

 

FIowers very numerous, crowded, 5-merous, pedicels slender, glandular, 4 - 5 mm, sepals free almost to the base, narrowly ovate-deltoid, glandular, ± 3 x 1,3 mm, petals narrowly ovate-acuminate, ± 5 x 1,5 mm, reddish or greenish.

 

Related to S. cepaea and very close to S. lampusae and S. cyprium.

 

Sedum microstachyum growing in an asbestos seam, High Troodos Mts., Cyprus :