Flat-rosette aeonium
Aeonium glandulosum
Family · Crassulaceae · Harmless
The rosette flattened against the stone, almost stemless, covering vertical levada walls and damp Madeiran escarpments like overlapping green tiles.
Walls and rocks · Uplands · Streams and ditches
Also known asglandular aeonium
How to tell it
A broad, entirely flat rosette ten to thirty centimetres across, pressed to the rock, with no visible stem. Fleshy spoon-shaped leaves, the edge with short sticky hairs, often reddened at the margin in sun. A pyramid inflorescence of yellow flowers rising from the rosette's centre. Range: endemic to Madeira.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
The same traditional uses as the other aeonium, on burns and stings. Traditional use, in the past. It is not eaten. It is among the most seen plants on a levada walk and one of those that give those walls the look everyone photographs.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.