Sedum

URSI 't Hart, 1990

Distribution : Turkey (mountains of western Anatolia).

 

 

Description (according to IHSP, 2003) :

 

Glabrous perennial herbs; stems prostrate or ascending, creeping and rooting, branching, forming loose tufts or mats.

 

Leaves alternate, densely imbricate, sessile with a short truncate spur, oblong, 8 x 2 mm, terete, rounded, dark green or glaucous.

 

Inflorescences : Flowering branches erect or ascending, simple or with small accessory axillary inflorescences, dead leaves reddish-brown, inflorescences small compact cymes with 2 - 3 cincinni, these rarely forked, bracts 2 per flower.

 

FIowers 5-merous, subsessile, sepals broadly sessile, unequal, oblong, to 2,5 mm, rounded, petals basally free or slightly connate, elliptic, 4 - 5 mm, acute or mucronate, yellow, filaments yellow, anthers yellow.

 

Cytology: 2n = 12

 

Belonging to the comparium of Ser. Alpestria A. Berger ('t Hart 1991).

 

 

Ray Stephenson (Sedum, Cultivated Stonecrops, 1994, p 102) :

 

Sedum ursi is a very recently described species from Turkey. At first it was considered a regional variation of Sedum laconicum, but there are no hyaline papillae on the tips of the leaves (Leaf shapes, fig. 1 m). In other respects the two species somewhat resemble each other.

 

Habitat : Mount Sandras was where the species was first discovered but it also grows in adjacent areas of southwestern Anatolia on limestone and serpentine scree at about 1650 m (5410 ft).

 

Main points of distinction :This glabrous species resembles Sedum laconicum except that the rounded leaf tips lack hyaline papillae. In addition, the sepals are fused into a receptacle, and the plant is distinct cytologically with 2n = 12.

 

Variation : I have only grown a single clone and know of no others in cultivation.

 

Horticulture : This species appears as hardy as Sedum urvillei and S. laconicum.

Sedum ursi at W side of Baba Dag (Fethiye) overlooking the sea :

 


Near Elmali 70+ km from the coast in a limestone gorge :

In cultivation :
Photos Ray Stephenson

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