Hylotelephium maximum

Description

Hylotelephium is a genus of flowering plants in the stonecrop family Crassulaceae. It includes about 33 species distributed in Asia, Europe, and North America. Species in the genus, formerly included in Sedum, are popular garden plants, known as "sedum", "stonecrop", "live-for-ever" or "orpine". Horticulturalists have hybridized many of the species to create new cultivars. Many of the newer ones are patented, so may not be propagated without a license. Hylotelephium telephium and related species have been considered in a number of different ways since first being described by Linnaeus in 1753, including as a section of Sedum by Gray in 1821, or a subgenus. But these taxa are quite distinct from Sedum morphologically. Hylotelephium is one of a group of genera that form a separate lineage from Sedum, and is closely related to Orostachys, Meterostachys, and Sinocrassula. The separation of the genus has not been universally adopted, for instance a Missouri Botanical Garden website states "Upright Sedums were at one point separated into the genus Hylotelephium, but are now generally included back in the genus Sedum." One of Kew Garden's online databases also lists Hylotelephium as a synonym for Sedum.