| Classification |
| Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order Type: Eudicots-Lower Rosids
Order: Saxifragales
Family: Crassulaceae
Family Common Name: Stonecrop Family
Genera: Sedum |
Defining Features: Plants
with crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM).
Defining Morphology: Floral
Features: Inflorescences are determinate, terminal or axillary and sometimes
reduced to solitary flower. Flowers are bisexual and actinomorphic and
without hypanthium. Flowers 4 to 5 merous. Equal number of carpels, sepals
and petals. There is scale-like gland at the base of each ovary. Ovaries
are often superior with lateral placentation. Fruit and Seed Features:
Dicotyledon. Fruit a cluster of follicles (rarely a capsule). Vegetative
Features: Habit as succulent herbs or sometimes soft-stemmed shrubs. Leaves
alternate, opposite or whorled and sometimes in basal rosette. Leaves lack
stipules.
Distribution: Cosmopolitan
(mostly drier regions). Not Australia and Polynesia.
Economic Use: As a cultivated
garden and indoor ornamentals as well as used medicinally.
Number of Genera Globally: 35
Number of Species Globally:
1,500
