Sedum clavatum variegata

About Sedum clavatum variegata

Sedum clavatum forms tight, compact rosettes of fat spoon-shaped leaves, blue-grey with a pink tip in the sun, on short stems that in time flop over and trail. It is Mexican, from the ravines of Michoacán, and it is among the prettiest sedums there are.

This is its variegated form: the leaves carry cream and yellow marbling scattered irregularly, different on every rosette. It comes with a coat of farina, that waxy white bloom the plant makes as a sunscreen and which rubs off with your fingers and never comes back.

Like all variegation, it is expensive in energy: the pale areas have no chlorophyll, so it grows a good deal more slowly than the green form and scorches more easily. That is why it costs more — it is growing time, not scarcity.

Botanical fact sheet

Care

Do not handle it by the leaves. The white farina is its protection against sun and water loss, and a fingerprint removes it from that leaf for good. Always pick it up by the pot or the stem.

Plenty of light but filtered during the middle hours of summer: the areas without chlorophyll scorch before green tissue does. Water more sparingly than for the green form, always at the base and never over the rosette, because water trapped between the leaves rots it. If it throws entirely green shoots, remove them or they will eat the variegation.

Did you know?

Farina is not dead wax: it is microscopic crystals the plant secretes, which reflect ultraviolet light like a mirror. Under desert sun it drops the leaf temperature by several degrees. It is, literally, a mineral sunscreen made by the plant itself.