Crassula aquatica (L.) Schonl   = C. saginoides   Crassulaceae (Stonecrop Family)   Native   Water Pigmy-weed

                                            April Photo

Plant Characteristics: Annual, stems decumbent, later +/- erect if stranded, generally branched at base, rooting at lower nodes, glabrous in CA.; lvs. opposite, 2-6 mm., oblanceolate to linear, tip acute, opposite, bases fused; fls. an axillary cyme, one per lf. pair; pedicel less than 1.9 mm.; fl. 1-2 mm.; sepals 4, +/- 0.5 mm., ovate to oblong, tip rounded to obtuse; petals 1-2 mm., lanceolate; stamens 4; style minute, spreading in fr.;  follicles erect, oblong, subtruncate; seeds 6-17, elliptic-oblong.

Habitat:  On dry mud flats below 2000 ft.; many Plant Communities; widely scattered localities, cismontane s. Calif.; to Wash., eastern U.S.; Mex., Eurasia, Catalina Id.; occasional at higher elevs., as Hidden Lake, San Jacinto Mts., at 8000 ft.  March-July.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 382).  Salt marshes, vernal pools, ponds below 3000 ft. (Hickman, Ed. 525).

Name:  Crassula, diminutive of Latin, crassus, thick.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 382.  Latin, aquatilis, living in or near the water.  (Jaeger 23).

General:  Rare in the study area having been found only at the vernal pond in the Castaways area.  (my comment).       The whole genus including many perennials has perhaps 250 species and is largely of South Africa.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 382).

Text Ref:  Hickman,  Ed. 525; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 382; Roberts 21.

Photo Ref:  April 95 # 20,21,24.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by John Johnson.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 480.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit. 12/15/02

                                          April Photo