Androsacea sarmentosa

This one looks like a very small, strange, fuzzy sempervivum.

I like how the chicks are sticking up all over the place.

It is such a strange and interesting plant. I bought it because my other Androsacea mucronifolia made it through our difficult winter and spring. Time to see what other Androsacea are out there. : )

My Androsacea draba made it through our winter & spring. Must be a tough plant. It is now starting to actively grow. I was very surprised to see all the webbing it has this year. The Androsacea sarmentosa is new for me this year. I made sure to plant it where it will have very good drainage. It appear that the sarmentosa offsets are starting to root. Now to watch them through the summer and see if they need less sun to stay healthy.

Draba fladnizensis Wulfen 7/4/2011 and Androsacea sarmentosa 7/4/2011

My Androsacea mucronifolia made it through our very wet winter. I just found it hiding under a large clump of Sedum oreganum.

I am coming to love these tiny little alpine plants.

Hi, valleylynn,
The plant you referred to as "Androsacea draba" seems to be a bit of a mystery, as that's not a valid species name.
Has it actually turned out to be in the genus Androsace (as one would be able to tell from the flowers)? I wonder if it is not actually Arabis androsacea... the mention of "Draba" might have been someone's guess to explain the four-petalled flowers, if so.

Anyway, nice plant, whatever it is.

Here's Arabis androsacea for comparison:

Lori, what lovely photos. Are they all Arabis androsacea? Are they in your garden?

Mine has not bloomed yet so I am not sure what they will look like.

I just found the correct name, I turned it around from Draba androsacea, which is a synonym for Draba fladnizensis Wulfen . Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention.
http://www.edelweissperennials...

Thanks, Lynn! Yes, the photos are all of Arabis androsacea from my tufa garden.

Oh, okay, there is a Draba androsacea. (As if plant names aren't confusing enough, there has to be ones that are interchangeable yet! ) Thanks for the info.
I'd still suggest that your plant is very likely actually Arabis androsacea, as it doesn't resemble these photos of D. androsacea (D. fladnizensis):
http://www.swcoloradowildflowe...

Drabas tend to be very hard to tell apart (beyond white flowers vs. yellow flowers!) but your plant is distinctly different from this particular draba, at least.

Lori, I see I have a lot to learn when it comes to Draba, Arabis and Androsace. And it only makes it more difficult when plants are sent with incorrect names.
What would be a good place to start researching these plants?

valleylynn said:Lori, I see I have a lot to learn when it comes to Draba, Arabis and Androsace. And it only makes it more difficult when plants are sent with incorrect names.
What would be a good place to start researching these plants?

Well, there's never any single source for all the plant info one might want!
If I'm trying to find out about a particular species, I usually start by googling... but one must always be aware of the large number of misidentified plants out there and try to go with more reputable sites (i.e. where species identities have been verified).
If I'm trying to distinguish species in a genus or distinguish between similar species, I try to find a key... not always easy to find.

If you want to browse genera or check out particular species, here are a few good sites (there are many others):
http://nargs.org/nargswiki/tik...
http://www.calflora.org/
http://plants.usda.gov/java/

Thank you Lori. I have NARGS for reference, but did not know about the other two.
It's getting late, so I will search through them tomorrow. Again, thank you for your help.

A few more Androsace:
Androsace chamaejasme, a native alpine - a fragrant little thing, as the common name Rock Jasmine implies, but you have to really hunker down to smell it!
In the garden in bloom and showing its great fall colour:


And in the wild in the Rockies west of here:


Androsace sempervivoides - easy to grow in the rock garden here:


Androsace carnea ssp. brigantiaca:


Androsace carnea 'Alba':


Androsace albana, from seed the previous year:


Androsace septentrionalis in the wild in the Rockies west of here (first 2 photos) - a vastly different plant from the form that makes the rounds in the seed exchanges (last photo):


And la creme de la creme, a monocarpic beauty that is very difficult to make happy (not from my garden, unfortunately, but from the garden of a local expert alpine gardener), Androsace bulleyana:

Lori wonderful to see so many different Androsace. The Androsace bulleyana is spectacular. What makes it difficult to grow compared to the others?

valleylynn said:Lori wonderful to see so many different Androsace. The Androsace bulleyana is spectacular. What makes it difficult to grow compared to the others?

Thanks!
Well, it's often pretty hard to define what particular condition is key to allowing a difficult plant to survive! Even among alpines, it's rarely grown, to start with. The expert gardener to whom I refer wrote a couple of articles for the NARGS member publication (Rock Garden Quarterly) in which it is said that there was no success with it in many attempts, despite fabulous rock garden conditions and extensive experience with alpines. Success, finally, in a new, even more fabulous rock garden was attributed to ensuring that seedlings had very well-developed root systems prior to planting out. It is said in the article that it likes a warm spot, though generally siting was not so important. About "siting not being so important", bear in mind that this is in an extremely well thought-out, world-class rock garden (see photo for a tiny hint of this!), so it probably implies a certain minimum level of drainage/soil conditions.

I had noticed the amazing rock placements. I can't even imagine what it would take to put one like that together.

By the way, I did send Edelweiss (the source of your mislabelled "Draba androsacea") a note to say that what they are selling is definitely not Draba androsacea/D. fladnizensis, and that it appears to be Arabis androsacea. I don't order from Edelweiss so don't tend to look at their site, but it's up to them whether they correct their plant list or not. It seems fairly common to get a mislabelled plant where someone has just mixed up tags between otherwise correctly-ID'd species, a little less common at a specialist nursery that a plant is totally misidentified like this case, but it happens, needless to say.

Let me know if you hear back from him.

I have this one that came as Androcase sarmentosa. It hasn't bloomed for me yet. Do you have it?

I noticed your photo - there are actually two different plants there. What's the larger rosette?
Looks pretty Draba-like to me.

I just got a note back from Edelweiss - they are amazingly responsive - seems like a great place!
The owner(?) says:
"Thanks for letting us know. It’s funny, I just noticed a week ago when I was dividing the plants that there were tags with Draba a. and Arabis a. and I made a note to verify which one it actually is. And, yes, Arabis makes more sense."
So, it does it appear to be a case of mixing up tags!