When i purchased this plant, the sticky label on the container said Sedum mexicanum. And then it bloomed....conventional wisdom says it should be yellow blooms, not white. Any suggestions as to who this plant really is? There is a strand of hair in the second pic...not part of the plant

Could it be 'Spiral Staircase'?

Villadia batesii looks good ..

http://www.google.co.uk/search...

When I looked up Sedum Spiral staircase, the tag at the bottom of the picture stated that this plant was often mislabeled as Villadia batesii.....and then I read Janet's post

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2... spiral staircase

http://www.desert-tropicals.co...

I went to the site of the grower that this plant came from....they list it as Sedum mexicanum on their site and say it blooms white (Altman Plants)

http://www.cactusshop.com/libr...

Thank you both.....gonna do some more searching.....

Moon

Wow that's definitely confusing.

Strangely enough...or maybe not so strangely, this is not the first time a plant has caused me confusion

You're going to get wrongly named images on google too, best to look closely at educational sites. There's 3 images of Villadia batesii on this site ..

http://tcf.bh.cornell.edu/cgi-...

It doesn't look to have the same spiral effect as Sedum Spiral Staircase and I think that is your clue. More photos ..

http://www.lapshin.org/succule...

Thanks Janet. I agree that my plant does not have the rather uniform spirals of Spiral Staircase...truthfully, it seems the spiral arrangement that does show in my plant only became obvious in the past week or so.

I use Peter Lapshin's web site quite often, but I did notice that he had 3 V batesii labeled Sedum spirale....the "name" for Spiral Staircase....my plant seems to be a rather rapid grower, so I may just give it a little time and see what develops with age and growth. I may decide to "beard the lion' and contact Altman's directly as to their ID vs info collected....

For the moment, I will leave this open to suggestion....even though I tend to agree that it is more likely than not that Fred is Valladia batesii.

Thanks so much to you both, Cameron and Janet, for your help.

Moon

Checked the two out on The Plant List, Sedum spirale is unresolved.

http://www.theplantlist.org/tp...

Villadia batesii is accepted ..

http://www.theplantlist.org/tp...

I'm wondering if Spiral Staircase is a selection of Villadia batesii sold under Sedum as people recognise that, and with a nice cultivar name after it becomes more saleable?

Kew seems to suggest it is Villadia,

http://kbd.kew.org/kbd/detaile...

MEXICANUM [Britton, 1899] Cent. America, growing high up on volcanos, n=18, this odd species has no known relatives in the New World, but seems closest to some in eastern Asia (according to botanist Uhl). It may be in section Orientalia, though it is not found wild in the Orient, thus it presents a mystery. Its species name refers to Mexico, but even this is in total error. It was learned that it was first found by botanists growing in cultivation in Mexico City, thus the name; but it is found wild only in Central America. It is of easy culture and is grown widely in gardens in warm climates, but it survives frost and has naturalized in parts of south Europe. This is the only yellow flowering sedum with leaves in whorls of 4. This fact serves to identify it. [Note: Some nurseries sell another sedum under this name, but it is unrelated: it has white flowers and is called the “Spiral Staircase” and is probably some odd hybrid, but is vigorous growing and popular in nurseries for sale under this wrong name].

http://crassulaceae.net/sedumm...

Thank you Janet. I spent a bit of time searching out links....I had just finished reading the info at Kews when I logged in here....I am leaning toward Villadia batesii more and more, but not Spiral Staircase, even though there is a great deal of variety among those plants, I just don't see the flattened leaf bases that show up in so many pictures. It may be a matter of "Fred is happy with his name and we don't care who his parents are"

I have e-mailed Altman Plants requesting their help. I will post their response as soon as I hear from them....until that time, I am calling this plant Sedum confusum 'Fred'

Thanks much for all of your input and info.

Moon

I'm glad you chose the name Fred

I like it so much better than NOID

Fred does sound a lot bettter

Moonhowl, have you heard from Altman's yet?
Curiosity has me.

Unfortunately, No. I figured I would give them a week and then call them. The week ends tonight....I figure 7 days should fall under "a timely manner", especially since the spring rush is pretty close to over for growers. I have a sneaking suspicion that e-mails that aren't orders do not take precedence....

I contacted Altman Plants this morning. The resident plant expert, Bob Reidmuller, was not available at the moment, but I left a message and requested a call back from him. i will post again when I hear from Mr Reidmuller. The mystery continues...

The suspense is killing me.

Me Too