Madeira aeonium
Aeonium glutinosum
Family · Crassulaceae · Harmless
The fleshy sticky rosette clinging to rock faces and levada walls in Madeira, which in summer raises a pyramid of yellow flowers above itself.
Walls and rocks · Dunes and sand · Scrubland · Uplands
Also known assticky aeonium, houseleek tree
How to tell it
Rosettes of fleshy spoon-shaped leaves, pale green, covered in glandular hairs that make them clearly sticky to touch, which is the mark and gives the scientific name. Woody branched stems. A dense pyramid inflorescence of yellow flowers with seven to ten petals. Range: endemic to Madeira.
What it is confused with
Flat-rosette aeonium
Aeonium glandulosum
Both are Madeiran and sticky. This has a woody stem and upright rosettes; the flat-rosette one grows pressed to the stone, almost stemless, its rosette flat as a plate. Neither is harmful.
What it is for
The fleshy leaf split open was traditionally used in Madeira on burns and stings, in the same way as mainland stonecrop. Traditional use, in the past. It is not eaten.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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