goldmoss stonecrop

(Sedum acre ssp. acre)

Conservation Status
goldmoss stonecrop
Photo by Luciearl
  IUCN Red List

not listed

     
  NatureServe

NNA - No Status Rank

SNA - No Status Rank

     
  Minnesota

not listed

     
           
           
           
 
Description
 
 

Goldmoss stonecrop is an exotic, evergreen, succulent, flowering plant. It is native to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. It was introduced, cultivated as an ornamental ground cover, escaped cultivation, and is now naturalized across northern United States and southern Canada. It is uncommon in Minnesota. It is found on beaches, banks of streams and rivers, cemeteries, roadsides, rock outcrops, rock walls, and open disturbed areas. It grows under full sun to light shade in dry areas on calcareous soil. It is drought tolerant and often forms loose or dense mats.

Goldmoss stonecrop is perennial forb that rises from fibrous roots. Non-flowering (vegetative) stems are fleshy, branched, round in cross section, and ¾ to 4 (2 to 10 cm) long. They are hairless and usually green but sometimes become white with age. They do not have a whitish, waxy coating (glaucous). They lie flat on the ground (prostrate) with just the tips curving upwards (ascending). Where a node contacts the ground the stem produces roots. It may separate at this point creating a vegetative offset, a new plant.

Flowering stems are erect or ascending, usually unbranched, and 2 to 4 (5 to 10 cm) long or longer. They do not root at the nodes.

The leaves are alternate, crowded, and densely overlapping. They sometimes appear to be spiraled around the stem. They are stalkless and are attached slightly above the base, producing a pair of minute, pouch-like spurs below the attachment point. They are thick and succulent, elliptic in cross section, 116 to 316 (2 to 5 mm) long or longer, and 132 to (1 to 4 mm) wide. They gradually and only slightly reduce in size as they ascend the stem. The blades are egg-shaped and bluntly pointed at the tip. The upper and lower surfaces are hairless. They are not glaucous. The margins are untoothed. At flowering time the leaves on vegetative stems are often absent, and the lower leaves on flowering stems are usually white, soft, and papery.

The inflorescence is a solitary flower or a branched cluster (cyme) of 2 to 12 flowers at the end of flowering stems.

Each flower is about ½ wide. There are 5 outer floral leaves (sepals), 5 petals, 10 stamens, and 5 carpels, each with a single style. The sepals are green, fleshy, spreading, 116 to (2 to 3 mm) long, oblong egg-shaped, and bluntly pointed at the tip. Like the leaves, they have a pair of minute, pouch-like spurs at the base. The petals are bright yellow, 3 16 to (5 to 9 mm) long, narrowly lance-shaped, and sharply pointed. The stamens have yellow stalks (filaments) and yellow anthers. The filaments are attached at the bases of the petals. The carpels are greenish-yellow.

The fruit is a yellowish, (2.5 to 3.5 mm) long seed capsule (follicle) with many seeds.

 
     
 

Height

 
 

Matting: 2 to 11¾ (5 to 30 cm) long

 
     
 

Flower Color

 
 

Bright yellow

 
     
 

Similar Species

 
 

Stringy stonecrop (Sedum sarmentosum) has much longer stems and much longer leaves. They are mostly in well-spaced whorls of three, not crowded or overlapping.

 
     
 
Habitat
 
 

Dry. Beaches, banks of streams and rivers, cemeteries, roadsides, rock outcrops, rock walls, and open disturbed areas. Full sun to light shade. Calcareous soil.

 
     
 
Ecology
 
 

Flowering

 
 

June to July

 
     
 

Pests and Diseases

 
 

 

 
     
 
Use
 
 

 

 
     
 
Distribution
 
 

Distribution Map

 

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 22, 24, 28, 29, 30.

 
  4/22/2023      
         
 

Nativity

 
 

Native to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. Introduced, cultivated, and naturalized.

 
         
 

Occurrence

 
 

Uncommon

 
         
 
Taxonomy
 
  Kingdom Plantae (green algae and land plants)  
  Subkingdom Viridiplantae (green plants)  
  Infrakingdom Streptophyta (land plants and green algae)  
  Superdivision Embryophyta (land plants)  
  Division Tracheophyta (vascular plants)  
  Subdivision Spermatophytina (seed plants)  
  Class Magnoliopsida (flowering plants)  
  Superorder Saxifraganae  
 

Order

Saxifragales (saxifrages, stonecrops, and allies)  
 

Family

Crassulaceae (stonecrop)  
  Subfamily Sempervivoideae  
  Tribe Sedeae  
  Subtribe Sedinae  
  Genus Sedum (stonecrops)  
  Section Sedum  
  Species Sedum acre (goldmoss stonecrop)  
       
 

Synonyms

 
 

 

 
       
 

Common Names

 
 

biting stonecrop

goldmoss stonecrop

mossy stonecrop

stonecrop

wall-grass

wall-pepper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Ascending

Growing upward at an angle or curving upward from the base.

 

Carpel

The female reproductive organ of a flower, consisting of an ovary, styles, and stigmas.

 

Cyme

A branched, flat-topped or convex flower cluster in which the terminal flower opens first and the outermost flowers open last.

 

Elliptic

Narrowly oval, broadest at the middle, narrower at both ends, with the ends being equal.

 

Filament

On plants: The thread-like stalk of a stamen which supports the anther. On Lepidoptera: One of a pair of long, thin, fleshy extensions extending from the thorax, and sometimes also from the abdomen, of a caterpillar.

 

Follicle

A dry fruit formed from a single carpel, containing many seeds, that opens at maturity along the seed-bearing seam.

 

Glaucous

Pale green or bluish gray due to a whitish, powdery or waxy film, as on a plum or a grape.

 

Prostrate

Laying flat on the ground.

 

Sepal

An outer floral leaf, usually green but sometimes colored, at the base of a flower.

 

Spreading

Extending nearly horizontal.

 
 
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Luciearl

 
 

This pops up everywhere on beaches in the summer, but when people ask me what it is, I have to dig to find the name. One thing for sure, I tell them to pull it up.

  goldmoss stonecrop  
 

 

 
 

 

 
           
           
 
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Other Videos
 
  Sedum acre, the goldmoss stonecrop, mossy stonecrop, goldmoss sedum
With Adrian in nature
 
   
 
About

Jun 11, 2019

Sedum acre, the goldmoss stonecrop, mossy stonecrop, goldmoss sedum, biting stonecrop and wallpepper, is a perennial flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae.

I go through the forests, mountains, hills, fields, and waters to understand the living world and to create a living mind.

I'm just a man who is on passing on this living earth.

A living earth that is closer to death, because of us, of the human being. I spend all my time in nature, enjoying its show. All this time I try to make a video encyclopedia with flora and fauna that I encounter on this living earth. Sometimes with human fauna ...

I meet wild mushrooms, medicinal mushrooms, edible mushrooms, dead mushrooms, toxic mushrooms, magic mushrooms. Every wild mushroom with its mystery and story. The living earth is still amazing. I meet plants, flowers, trees, shrubs, grass, leaves fallen on the living land, leaves fallen on the dead land, leaves that dance in our thoughts and soul. I meet insects, invertebrates of all kinds, butterflies, worms, larvae, birds, fish, mammals, reptiles, amphibians...

But I also encounter deforested forests, hunters, poachers, animals killed, tormented, in a suffering that words can not express. I also meet people who think it is good that they behave like this.

I stretch my hand and save an insect from the drowning. But this people trample under foot my hand. They make their choice. I make my choice.

Sometimes I manage to correctly identify the species of living beings: mushrooms, plants, animals, insects. Sometimes not. What I know is much less than what I do not know. I am just a man in front of a knowledge that surpasses me, overcomes us.

I do not know enough English yet to make my clips more attractive. But I'm learning...A wonderful life, I wish you all!

   

 

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  Luciearl
6/22/2020

Location: Cass County

This pops up everywhere on beaches in the summer, but when people ask me what it is, I have to dig to find the name. One thing for sure, I tell them to pull it up.

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Created: 9/5/2020

Last Updated:

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