Job’s beard (Sempervivum heuffelii)
Description
Sempervivum heuffelii grows with very flat, open, pubescent or bare rosettes of 3 to 12 centimeters in diameter. Mostly a diameter of 4 to 8 centimeters is recorded. In cultivation, 15 to 18 centimeters rosette diameter can be achieved with high nutrient inputs. Its roots are thick, short-branched or lobed. The spreading, bilateral convex leaves are usually light or dark green or frosted green, but also vary sometimes in browns and reds. The elongated obovate leaf bladeis 20 to 60 millimeters long and 10 to 15 millimeters wide. At the tip of the blade is an attached Dornenspitzchen. The leaf margins are occasionally white. The leaves may be bald, but may have finely hairy leaves in varying degrees of intensity. Bald leaves are more common than hairy. The flowering shoots reach a length of 10 to 20 centimeters. The dense zymose inflorescence consists of three forked coils. The flowers are six to siebenzählig. Their pointed, lineal to lanceolate, greenish yellow sepals are often sharpened red. They are 6 to 10 millimeters long and fused together to about 2.5 millimeters. The yellow or yellowish white, upright petals are oblong obovate, usually dreispitzig and keeled. They are ciliate, barely fringed and 10 to 12 millimeters long. The stamens are light yellow, the stamens deep yellow. The relatively strong penis about 2 millimeters long. The greenish Nektarschüppchen are square to rounded. The vegetative propagation occurs apparently via "rosette division": The few offsprings develop sitting and develop very close to the shoot tip. The pear-shaped seeds are quite wide.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum: Magnoliophyta
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Class: Magnoliopsida
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Order: Saxifragales
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Family: Crassulaceae
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Genus: Sempervivum
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