Sempervivum ciliosum octopodes

Description

Sempervivum is a genus of about 40 species of flowering plants in the family Crassulaceae, commonly known as houseleeks. Other common names include liveforever (the source of the taxonomical designation Sempervivum, literally "always/forever alive") and hen and chicks, a name shared with plants of other genera as well. They are succulent perennials forming mats composed of tufted leaves in rosettes. In favourable conditions they spread rapidly via offsets, and several species are valued in cultivation as groundcover for dry, sunny locations. Houseleeks exist from Morocco to Iran, through the mountains of Iberia, the Alps, Carpathians, Balkan mountains, Turkey, the Armenian mountains, in the northeastern part of the Sahara Desert, and the Caucasus. Their ability to store water in their thick leaves allows them to live on sunny rocks and stony places in the mountain, subalpine and alpine belts. Most are hardy to US zone 4, and will handle warm climates to about zone 9. The genus Sempervivum is usually easy to recognize, although it may sometimes be confused with the genus Echeveria. However, its species are often not easy to identify. Even one single clone can look very different under various growth conditions (modifications) or different times of the year. The members of this genus are very similar and closely linked to each other. As a consequence, many subspecies, varieties, and forms were described, without well-defined limits between them. As a second consequence, there is a high frequency of natural hybrids in this genus and the possibility of back-crossings of these. However, more or less 40 species can be individualized in the whole area of the genus, but there are many more local populations, without nomenclatural valour but sometimes with their own characters. In the Alps, for example, the most distributed species are S. tectorum (common houseleek, sometimes called S. alpinum), S. montanum (mountain houseleek) and S. arachnoideum (cobwebbed houseleek), each one with several subspecies. More local are the yellow-flowered S. wulfenii and S. grandiflorum, and the beautiful limestone houseleek (S. calcareum). More rare are S. dolomiticum and mainly S. pittonii. S. pittonii is a small yellow-flowered jewel growing only on two mountains slopes near Kraubath in the Mur valley in Austria and is very threatened.