English: Small houseleek; Biting stonecrop; Gold moss; Common stonecrop; Wall-pepper; Goldmoss Sedum; Welcome home husband though never so drunk; Water of life.
Dutch: Muurpeper.
Content: alkaloids, sedamine, sedacrine, sedinine.
Region: Eurasia, Norway to Spain, east to western Siberia, Caucasus, Turkey; N. Africa, Morocco, Libya.
Habitat: dry sunny situations on rocks, roofs, walls, especially near the sea; often on limestone hills; avoids acid soils; very cold-hardy plant, tolerating temperatures to - 25°c; very easily grown plant; succeeds in most soils, prefers fertile, well-drained soil; prefers a sunny position; drought tolerant; driest deserts as well as in arctic conditions.
Content: alkaloids, sedine, sedamine.
Ecology: can be very aggressive and invasive, spreading indefinitely, swamping out less vigorous neighbours; often specially targeted by slugs; immune to the predations of rabbits.
Use: food, edible leaves, raw or cooked, rich in vitamin C, bitter acrid taste; leaves as spicy seasoning; medicine; skin conditioners; green roof systems; ornamental, ground cover in a sunny position; green roof and green wall systems.
BotanyHerb; evergreen; perennial; 5 cm tall; spreading freely at the roots.
Root: fibrous rootstock.
Stem: slender, creeping rhizome; forma a loose clump or a dense mat, with sterile shoots 1 to 3 cm tall;
Inflorescence: ascending blooming stems, 4 to 15 cm tall.
Flowers: yellow; blooming June and July.
Pollination: by bees, flies; self pollination.