Sedum rupestre

👨‍🌾GARDENING TIPS👨‍🌾: 

• • FR: Sedum, une succulente résistante

  • ENG: Sempergreen, caring for your Sedum

This sedum is prone to fasciation (cristate forms), which can produce attractive forms, with irregular curves and strange shapes.

However it reverts easily, so all normal offshoots need to be removed quickly to maintain the cristate form!

If you have not encountered fasciation in the world of plants before, then you must at least read about it.

A starter phrase:  it’s a relatively rare condition of abnormal growth in which the apical meristem (growing tip), which normally is concentrated around a single point becomes elongated in the direction of the growth.

Translated into literary speech: the flowers or stems will stretch into long deformations of themselves, producing incredible and bizarre shapes. It looks like you stepped into a hall of mirrors at a circus.

Fasciation is fascinating.

—–

Reflexum vs rupestre – this is an ongoing debate that turns around the inflorescences and which way they face when the buds are produced.

However!

I’ve found in my Sedum journeys – both practical and literary that:

• • the fine-leaved Sedum rupestre of Dillenius later was classified as Sedum reflexum, then reclassified by Linnaeus as Sedum rupestre var. reflexum named under Linnaeus so… they are.. the same?
  • Petrosedum rupestre and Petrosedum forsterianum seem to be clearly derive from the same rupestre taxon but are systematically separated by taxonomists

It’s a bit of a wacky world.

I have found this illustration to be helpful – by Juan Luis Castillo in “Flora iberica”  of Castroviejo.

The plant can be seen on ‘green roofs’ or ‘green wall’ systems in Korea where plants are incorporated into the structure of the building, providing habitats for wildlife and innovative insulation solution for humans.

🌸 Floral Morphology: Sedum rupestre

Sedum reflexum a low-growing, mat-forming succulent in the Crassulaceae family, with slender, needle-like, glaucous blue-green leaves arranged along trailing stems.

In summer, the plant produces small, star-shaped, yellow flowers clustered in loose inflorescences (cymes).

Flowers are actinomorphic and hermaphroditic, with five sepals and five petals, and a superior ovary.

The fleshy, water-storing leaves give the plant its resilience under drought and help maintain turgor during dry periods.

🧬 Reproductive Biology

Pollination is primarily entomophilous, attracting bees and other small insects. Sedum propagates easily through leaf cuttings or stem offsets, allowing rapid vegetative reproduction.

Seeds are produced in small capsules but vegetative propagation is far more common in cultivation.

The plant exhibits Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM), opening stomata at night to conserve water while allowing photosynthesis during the day.

🦋 Ecology & Cultivation

Sedum thrive in well-drained, sandy or rocky soils under full sun, although it tolerates light shade.

It is drought-tolerant, frost-sensitive, and well-suited for rock gardens, containers, or as ground cover.

The plant is low-maintenance, requires minimal watering, and benefits from occasional pruning to remove damaged or overgrown stems.

Its vibrant leaf colors and compact growth habit make it popular for ornamental gardening and succulent collections.

Other names:

Petrosedum rupestre

Jenny’s stonecrop

Blue stonecrop

Stone orpine,

Prick-madam

Trip-madam

Origin:

Northern, Central, and Southern Europe.