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Sedum rupestre L., Reflexed Stonecrop

Account Summary

Introduced, neophyte, a very rare garden escape, now locally extinct. Also a possible mis-identification.

1902; Abraham, J.T. & McCullagh, F.R.; Bolusty More Farm.

Fermanagh occurrence

This evergreen, succulent perennial, originally recorded by Abraham and McCullagh as S. reflexum L., was introduced to gardens from the Caucasus in the 16th century as a salad leaf crop. In the 1975 Revised Typescript Flora, Meikle and his co-workers suggested this solitary old record might be a mistake for the rather similar S. forsterianum Sm. (Rock Stonecrop). Certainly there have been many such identification errors in the past (Cat Alien Pl Ir), but in the absence of a voucher there is no evidence either way and Robert Northridge and the current author are provisionally allowing this solitary record to stand.

In FNEI 3, Hackney highlighted this same identification problem, but went on to remark that in their area S. rupestre (= S. reflexum L.) is, "certainly [the] much commoner [of the two], and is very frequently cultivated, often establishing itself on garden walls". [This may be the case, but see a relevant caution made in S. forsterianum below.] In the same work, Hackney also observed that in NE Ireland, S. rupestre only rarely naturalises itself in truly wild situations. This was definitely the case with the Fermanagh record, the site of which was originally described as, "Bar of Whealt, well established on houses" (Praeger 1903a). 'Bar of Whealt' is an alternative name for the area around the cliffs of Poulaphouca (sometimes spelt Poulaphuca and Pollaphuca) and also referred to as the Cliffs of Magho. The name encompasses the slopes below the cliffs where Bolustry More Farm lies, the ground stretching down to the southern shore of Lower Lough Erne.

Nowadays, the physical characters that distinguish these two stonecrop species are much better understood: S. rupestre has living leaves well spaced, not bunched at the end of the shoots. Also, dead leaves are not persistent, as is the case in S. forsterianum. Furthermore, the leaves on flowering stems are spreading or bent-back, as opposed to being held erect (An Irish Flora 1996).

British and Irish occurrence

Comparison of the New Atlas maps of these two stonecrops certainly shows that in Ireland at the hectad level of discrimination, S. rupestre is slightly more frequent and widespread than S. forsterianum. In Britain, S. rupestre is very much more common and widespread than is the case in Ireland. South of a line between Southport and Bridlington, the current author estimates it must be represented in comfortably over 80% of the available map hectads (Preston et al. 2002).