RUPICOLA G.N. Jones, 1931
Synonyms :
Sedum lanceolatum var. rupicola (G.N. Jones) C.L. Hitchcock (1964) / Amerosedum rupicola (G.N.Jones) A. Löve & D. Löve (1985)
Distribution : NW USA (Washington : mainly Wenatchee Mts.), serpentine.
First Description by G.N. Jones in Research Studies of the State College of Washington, 2 (4): 125. 1930 (publ. 1931) :
Perennial.
Stems erect, simple, smooth, 10 - 20 cm high, leafy near the base, leafless or nearly so above.
Leaves numerous, ellipsoid, or the young ones ovoid, the older ones curved upward, thick, glaucous, minutely papillose and pitted, obtusely pointed, widest at the middle, 5 - 7 mm long, 3 - 4 mm thick, sessile, slightly flattened on the ventral surface, rounded on the dorsal surface.
Cymes about 5 cm broad, somewhat less hight, with a few lanceolate, pale green bracts.
Flowers not sessile, petals spreading in anthesis, twice as long as the sepals, distinct, yellow, lanceolate, acuminate, 6 - 7 mm long, 1.5 - 2 mm wide, sepals lanceolate, pale green, fleshy, especially near the apex, obtuse, striate, stamens two-thirds as long as the petals, follicles erect, 4 - 5 mm long, with spreading styles.
Description by ‘t Hart & Bleij in IHSP, 2003 :
Perennial tufted herbs with clusters of reddish sterile stems; scondary shoots in th axils of some leaves.
Leaves easily detaching and serving for vegetative propagation, alternate, ovate, elliptic-ovate, or lanceolate, obtuse or aparently acute, 3.2 – 6.2 x 1.9 – 2.9 mm, blue-green, purplish or green, sometimes glaucous, divergent, slightly upturned.
Flowering branches erect, ca 18 cm.
Inflorescences cymes with 3 branches, bracts narrowly elliptic to linear.
Flowers 5-merous, sessile or subsessile, sepals broadly sessile, basally slightly connate, lanceolate or lanceolate-oblong, obtuse or subacute, green, ca 3 x 1.5 mm, petals free, elliptic-lanceolate or lanceolate, obtuse (rarely acute), minutely mucronate, slightly cucullate, yellow, 6.7 – 8.8 mm, shortly erect at the base, then widely speading, filaments yellow, anthers yellow.
Replacing S. lanceolatum at haigher altitudes in the Wenatchee Mts. and on serpentine.