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Sedum corynephyllum (Toliman Stonecrop) - An interesting and rare small sub-shrub that grows to 1 to 2 feet tall and wide with club shaped cylindrical light green leaves clustered at the branch tips with a compact inflorescence bearing only a few cupped barely open flowers with greenish yellow petals and long green sepals (longer than the petals) in late winter.
Plant in full sun to light shade in a well-drained soil with occasional irrigation. Hardiness is not well known but the plant has not been bothered by temperatures hovering around 30° F for short durations at our nursery. When young it resembles the common Sedum pachyphytum but eventually grows upward into a small sturdy shrub with a thickened trunk.
Because of the interesting flowers, Joseph Nelson Rose originally described this plant in 1905 from a collection made the year before by the German botanist Carl Albert Purpus as being the monotypic member in the genus Corynephyllum, and used the specific epithet viride to describe its green leaves. When it was later combined into Sedum by Alwin Berger he needed to change the specific name as there was already a Sedum viride described from Japan, so the name Sedum corynephyllum was chosen. The name for the genus comes from the Latin word 'sedo' meaning "to sit," in reference to the manner in which some species attach themselves to stones or walls. The original genus name and now the specific epithet comes from the Greek words 'koryne' meaning "club" or "pestle" and 'phyllon' meaning leaf for the shape of the leaves.
Sedum corynephyllum is a plant in the Pachysedum group of the genus, one of 22 subdivisions within the genus Sedum that the German botanist Alwin Berger created and that American botanist Robert Clausen expanded upon. This group includes more than 90 closely related tender succulent species from North America that appear to be more closely related to Echeveria, Pachyphytum and Graptopetalum than to plants in other sections in Sedum. Unlike these other Sedum that produce terminal inflorescences on the stem, plants in this group have lateral inflorescences.
We have grown this plant since 2016 from cuttings off plants grown from seed collected at the Barranca de Toliman in Hidalgo, Mexico.
The information displayed on this page about Sedum corynephyllum is based on our research conducted about this plant from books in our nursery library as well as from information that is provided by reliable online resources. We also have included our own observations made about it as it grew in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers when we had them in our nursery field. We also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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