TUBERIFERUM Stojanov & Stefanoff, 1934
Distribution : Western Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, northern Greece; endemic to the mountains, rocky slopes and stony meadows, rocks or cliffs, open places in forests, ± 1500 m.
Description (according to IHSP, 2003) :
Glabrous sparingly branched perennial herbs with erect or ascending non-flowering branches arising from small subterranean tubers of ± 0,5 - 1 cm and clothed with brown scale-like leaves, which arise in clusters at the base of old shoots.
Leaves alternate, crowded at shoot tips, sessile with a 3-lobed spur, linear-oblong to lanceolate-spatulate, to 10 mm, subacute to obtuse, green or greyish-green.
Inflorescences : Flowering branches erect, ascending or sometimes pendent, to 15 cm, sometimes with subsidiary inflorescences, inflorescences lax cymes with 2 (-4) monochasial branches, bracts 2 per flower.
FIowers 5-merous, subsessile, sepals broadly sessile, unequal, 2,5 - 3 mm, obtuse, petals free, oblong-lanceolate, to 6 mm, acuminate, yellow, filaments yellow, anthers yellow.
Cytology: 2n = 32.
Belonging to the comparium of Ser. Alpestria A. Berger ('t Hart 1991).
Ray Stephenson (Sedum, Cultivated Stonecrops, 1994, pp 101 - 102) :
New to cultivation and still very rare, Sedum tuberiferum is a very odd little plant producing subterranean, tuberlike propagules. These propagules have scalelike leaves (Fig. 1a), which, when they surface, become normal leaves.
Sedum tuberiferum: (a) a subterranean propagule; (b) inflorescence, about 10 cm (4 in) high, with trilobed bracts.
Early growth is just a tiny, tufted rosette at ground level, but as the few bright green stems rise, laxly arranged leaves with very distinctive, three-lobed basal spurs are displayed (Leaf shapes, fig. 1l). The inflorescences rise to about 15 cm (6 in) carrying few-branched cymes on which the bracts also have characteristic three-lobed spurs (Fig. 1b).
Habitat : Sedum tuberiferum grows in Bulgaria and northern Greece in mountain areas.
Main points of distinction : Subterranean tuberlike propagules are unique. Three-lobed spurs at the bases of the leaves are also a good aid to identification. Flowers are pale yellow, and carpels have upturned beaks.
Sedum tuberiferum, Prespa Lake, Greece :
The plants produce subterranean tuberlike propagules with scale-like leaves.
Photo Ray Stephenson
Plant from Mikrolimni, Macedonia, Greece.
Photos Meinolf Stützer