Publication: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 70: 292 1943.
Description
Sedum hintonii is one of the most attractive of all sedums. It is a perennial mat forming succulent plant, up to 20 cm tall with prostrate rhizomes and up to 5 mm in diameter. It forms dense rosettes bearing tiny egg-shaped leaves, densely covered with white hairs. Little white flowers appear in winter, and in April in Mexico, always a welcome time. Sedum hintonii is best distinguished by the dense covering of white hairs on all its stems, leaves and sepals.
Stems: Several, robust and short (plants are almost acaulescent).
Rosette. Lax, 3-10 cm in diameter.
Leaves: Basal leaves oblong or elliptical, pale green, densely pubescent, 1.5-5 cm long and .3-10 mm wide.
Inflorescences: Open panicls, with broadly spreading branches and sessile flowers. Flowering stem up to 24 cm long with oblanceolate bracts leaves. Pedicels 8-14 mm long to absent.
Flowers: White and star-shaped. Sepals ellliptical to ovate 2-2.5 mm long. Petals oblong-lanceolate, ovate-tiangula, recurved, white, and 4-5(-6) mm long, 2.7 mm wide.
Similar species: Sedum mocinianum and S. hintonii, both hairy plants and both hailing from Mexico are often mislabeled in cultivation, but the inflorescences of S. hintonii is far longer than those of S. mocinianum. The true S. hintonii is seldom found in cultivation, so most of the plants carrying the label “Sedum hintonii” are actually Sedum mocinianum. Among sedums mistakes are more common than anyone might like.
Origin and Habitat
Mexico. Pacific coast set deep in Sierra Madre del Sur and Sierra Madre Occidental in states of Michoacan, Jalisco, and Durango.
Type locality: Pinzán, alt. 830 m., District of Coalcoman de Vázquez Pallares, Michoacan, Mexico.
Habitat and ecology: Sedum hintonii grows in rocky cliff not exposed to the sun, on the cracks full of humus; in the same habitat there are other succulent plants such as Ferocactus lindsayii, Hechtia glauca, Plumeria, Peniocereus, Pilosocereus, Opuntia and caudiciform plants.
Cultivation and Propagation
Sedum hintonii, a collector’s piece from Mexico, is not easy to adapt to cultivation for long. It is a slow growing, mat forming succulent that has downy pale green leaves and white flowers. At flowering time (in late winter and early spring) the plant should be very sparingly watered, because it is very prone to rot if water becomes trapped within the leaves. Grow this little gem in a well- drained potting mixture; add about one third of sharp sand or perlite to a good standard material, either loam- or peat-based. Although it will withstand quite low temperatures if kept dry, S. hintonii is better if kept rather warmer than in the average greenhouse in winter, and it makes a good houseplant. Take care Watch for rotting between the tightly packed stems. Starvation intensifies the compactness of habit and whiteness of leaves.
Propagation: Propagation is by splitting the clusters, or by rooting leaves.
Bibliography
Major references and further lecture
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JERÓNIMO REYES SANTIAGO, JULIA ETTER, MARTIN KRISTEN “SEDUM PIAXTLAENSE (CRASSULACEAE), A NEW SPECIES FROM DURANGO, MÉXICO” Haseltonia 20: 58–63. 2015
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Brent Horvath “The Plant Lover’s Guide to Sedums” Timber Press, 22 April 2014
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Margaret Martin, Peter Chapman “A gardner’s guide to cacti and succulents: how to grow these fascinating plants in the home and greenhouse : featuring 150 species” Salamander Books, Limited, 1988
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Robert Theodore Clausen, “Sedum of North America North of the Mexican Plateau” Cornell University Press, 1 January 1975
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Benjamin Lincoln Robinson, Merritt Lyndon Fernald, “Rhodora”, Volume 94, New England Botanical Club, 1992
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Gordon D. Rowley, “The illustrated encyclopedia of succulents” Crown Publishers, 1 August 1978
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“Amateur Gardening”, Volume 91, 1974
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Arturo Anay “The real Sedum hintonii” Sedum Society, web: http://www.cactus-mall.com/sedum/hintonii.html