Sedum acre
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
stonecrop
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Herbs - Dicotyledons other than Composites
Flower colours
Yellow
Detailed description
Glabrous, often mat-forming, perennial herb with creeping stems freely rooting at nodes and numerous short erect sterile and flowering stems. Leaves alternate, sessile, densely arranged up the erect stems, imbricate but not in terminal rosettes, 4~5 x 2.5~3mm, approx. 1.5mm thick, broadly cordate-ovate, convex above and below, entire, green or yellowish-green but old leaves persisting and white; apex obtuse. Infl. terminal, < 1.5cm long, a short open cyme .5~3cm across and with 1~3 branches, each with up to 4 flowers and a leaf-like bract. Flowers sessile or subsessile, secund. Sepals unequal, 3~4mm long, broad-ovate and very similar to leaves. Petals 5, generally patent, 6.5~7.5 x 3mm(approx.), ovate-elliptic, yellow, acute. Stamens 5~6mm long, yellow. Carpels and styles yellow. Scales semi-lunate to rectangular. Follicles yellow, widely divergent. Seed .5~.8mm long, narrowly ellipsoid or ellipsoid-obovoid, longitudinally ribbed. (-Webb et. al., 1988)
Similar taxa
A mat-forming perennial herb, with creeping stems that root at the nodes and numerous short erect sterile and flowering stems (Webb et. al. 1988). The leaves are alternate, densely arranged, small and scale like (Webb et. al. 1988). The inflorescence occurs at the end of the erect stems and is less than 1.5cm long (Webb et. al. 1988). The flowers have 5 petals and are yellow (Webb et. al. 1988). A plant with an acrid taste (Webb et. al. 1988).
Habitat
Terrestrial. A plant that grows on gravel, shingle, sand, rocks and most light porous substrates from sea level to nearly 1500m (Webb et. al. 1988). A plant of coastal cliffs, behind beaches, on walls and banks, roadsides, riverbeds, railway tracks and embankments and waste places in and around settlements (Webb et. al. 1988).
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Crassulaceae
Ecology
Flowering
November, December, January, February, March
Year naturalised
1904
Origin
Eur, W Asia, N Africa
Reason for introduction
Ornamental
Life cycle and dispersal
Perennial. Seed is formed freely (Webb et. al. 1988).
Other information
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
SEDACR