Image of White Stonecrop

Description:

Slo.: bela homulica - syn: Sedum album ssp. micranthum - Habitat: stony grassland, steep mountain slop, south aspect, dirt alpine roadside, calcareous ground, warm, dry place, full sun, elevation 1.270 m (4.170 feet);average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 4-6 deg C, alpine phytogeographical region. Substratum: soil among rocks and in rock crevices.Comment: Once common and widespread plant growing in all European mountains is becoming sparser mainly because of gradual overgrow of abandoned stony mountain pastures. This poses serious problem for insects, which are tightly dependant on it as food. Such is beautiful Alpine Apollo butterfly (Parnassius apollo), which is in sharp decline and already disappeared from many Alpine regions. Its caterpillars feed almost exclusively with plants of stonecrop (Sedum) genus where white stonecrop (Sedum album) represents the most important species for them.Sedum album is still common in Trenta valley along with other sedum species as Spanish stonecrop (Sedum hispanicum), biting stonecrop (Sedum acre) and tasteless stonecrop (Sedum sexangulare). Hence Apollo butterfly is present, on some years, as for example this year, it is abundant. Tens and tens of these beautiful butterflies can be admired swarming around flowers and collecting nectar.Ref.:(1) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007), p 237. (2) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 1., Haupt (2004), p 682.(3) K. Lauber and G. Wagner, Flora Helvetica, 5. Auflage, Haupt (2012), p 273.