FLORIFER (Praeger) 't Hart, 1995

Synonyms :

Sedum floriferum  Praeger (1918) / Sedum kamtschaticum var. floriferum  (Praeger) Stephenson (1994) / Aizopsis florifera  (Praeger) P.V.Heath (2001)

Phedimus floriferus (incorrect name) see Note below.

Subgenus Aizoon.

Distribution : North-eastern China.

Description (according to IHSP, 2003) :

Glabrous herbs with a woody torulose rootstock and thick roots.

Leaves spatulate-oblanceolate, obtuse, crenate in the upper part, sessile, to 4 x ± 1.5 cm, dark green.

Flowering branches ascending or decumbent, somewhat scabrid, to 15 cm long, often richly branched in the upper part, with spreading axillary branches, red.

Inflorescences terminal or lateral, flattish, 2 - 5 cm in diameter.

Flowers subsessile, sepals basally free or slightly connate, widely spreading, linear to oblanceolate, obtuse, very fleshy, 1/2 as long as the petals, petals lanceolate, acute, short-mucronate, greenish-yellow, filaments greenish, anthers reddish-yellow.

Probably described from cultivated material, but apparently no longer in cultivation (Stephenson 1994). Its status within Subgenus  Aizoon is uncertain. Although it is treated explicitly as a species in the Chinese Flora, it is not mentioned by Chung & Kim (1989).

Note : 

“Floriferus” or “florifer” : the correct ending is a question of grammatical gender. Phedimus is masculine and the masculine form of the specific adjective is florifer and not floriferus. In horticultural literature, the masculine form is very commonly misspelled -ferus-, probably because for the masculine form of many adjectives it is the suffix -us which is correct.