Botany: stonecrop

Self-tutoring about plant identification: the tutor mentions stonecrop.

Due to unusual (yet pleasant enough) circumstances, I’ve been walking around town lately. Not that I mind walking; I just usually don’t venture through those places. Yet, I used to, around 25-30 years ago, so they’re familiar enough.

As one walks along the sidewalk, it’s often a chance to notice wild plants. Even the margin of a parking lot can host an interesting plant. During the walks I’ve been on lately, I’ve noticed a few, stonecrop, I believe, being one.

More specifically, I’ve noticed what one might describe as a spreading mat of small yellow flowers. Its location is across a gravelly, unplanted region between the edge of a parking lot and the sidewalk. Said place is mown, but otherwise, it seems, untended.

A gravelly area seems a welcoming habitat for stonecrop, especially in full sun, which this site is. Which exact stonecrop it might be I’m not sure; it’s not a place one is expected to linger to carefully examine a plant. However, my suspicion is lance-leaved stonecrop.

Source:

Pojar, J, MacKinnon, A, et al. Plants of Coastal British Columbia. Vancouver: Lone Pine Publishing, 1994.