White stonecrop
Sedum album
Family · Crassulaceae · Harmless
The carpet of fat green grains covering stone walls and outcrops, turning red in summer when the rock heats up. In July it opens into a carpet of white stars.
Where it grows
Walls and rocks · Uplands · Scrubland
Also known asworm grass
In flower
How to tell it
Small cylindrical leaves rounded at the tip, like fat grains of rice, loose to the touch. White five-petalled star flowers, many together. It forms dense low mats.
What it is confused with
Pale stonecrop
Petrosedum sediforme
Leaf and flower: round grains and white flowers here, pointed leaves and yellowish flowers on the other.
Open sheet →What it is for
Traditional external use on corns and warts in folk medicine, hence one of its Portuguese names. Not a plant to eat: in quantity it causes sickness.