Authors: Huds.  

Botanical Description

compact carpeter to 5cm tall, similar to S. acre but leaves duller green. Flowers five-petalled, about 9mm across, pinkish-white crowded in short cymes with two to three branches, summer. Rocks in coastal areas of Western Europe. S.a. var. arenarium is an annual form from Iberia, very common in granitic areas of Portugal. All stems flower. S.a. var. hibernicum is a larger, pubescent form from Ireland. S.a. var. melanantherum (syn. S. melanantherum), is an Iberian form with a long flowering season bearing cymes of pink flowers with one in the fork. An excellent specimen plant. S.a. var. microphyllum, syn. S.a. var. minus, is smaller in all its parts and grows wild on the Lizard in Cornwall and even smaller forms are true alpine plants in Iberia. S.a. subsp. pyrenaicum is taller and leafier, the flowering stems laxer.

a, S. acre; b, S. anacampseros; c, S. anglicum; d, S. dasyphyllum; e, S. ewersii; f, S. reflexum; g, S. villosum;