Key to Crassula

View taxon page for Crassula

(For a list of species in Crassula, use the above link.)

Jepson Manual glossary definitions can be seen by moving your cursor over words underlined with dots.

1. Perennial herb to shrub; leaves generally > 10 mm; flowers in terminal inflorescence, many

2. Leaves 

linear 

Elongate, with nearly parallel sides; narrower than elliptic or oblong.

to narrow-deltate, ± 

cylindric 

Elongate, with parallel sides and, at any point, round in transverse section.

..... C. tetragona

2' Leaves obovate to 

ovate 

Egg-shaped (i.e., widest below the middle) in two dimensions (i.e., in one plane), as a leaf.

or wide-elliptic, ± flat

3. Perennial herb; stems 

erect 

Upright; vertically oriented.

or 

decumbent 

lying mostly flat on the ground but with tips curving up.

; 

leaf 

Organ arising from a stem, generally composed of a stalk (petiole) and a flat, expanded, green, photosynthetic area (blade); distinguished from a leaflet by the presence in its axil of a bud, branch, thorn, or flower; sometimes with lateral, basal appendages (stipules); either simple (toothed, lobed, or dissected but not divided into leaflets) or compound (divided into leaflets).

ovate to wide-elliptic, 

petiole 

Leaf stalk, connecting leaf blade to stem; sometimes more or less indistinct.

5–20 mm; 

pedicel 

Stalk of an individual flower in an inflorescence, or the corresponding structure in fruit.

3–8 mm; petals generally 4, 3–4 mm ..... [C. multicava subsp. multicava]

3' Shrub; stems erect; leaf obovate, petiole ± 0; pedicel 8–12 mm; petals generally 5, 7–10 mm ..... [C. ovata]

1' Annual; leaves generally < 6 mm; flowers in leaf axils, 1–2 per 

node 

Position on a stem from which one or more structures (especially leaves, buds, branches, or flowers) arise.

, or terminal, 1

4. Flowers 1 per node (or terminal); sepals ± 1/2 petals; seeds >= 3; plants generally aquatic or on wet substrates (e.g., seeps, vernal pools, ditches); stems ± decumbent to 

ascending 

Curving or angling upward from base, or about 30-60 degrees less than vertical or away from axis of attachment.

, generally rooting at 

nodes 

Position on a stem from which one or more structures (especially leaves, buds, branches, or flowers) arise.

5. Seeds with ± regular, continuous, longitudinal lines at 20×, ± dull or shiny but not glistening as if wet; 

follicles 

Dry fruit from a simple pistil, dehiscent on only one side, along a single suture. A single flower may develop into a simple fruit of 1 follicle or an aggregate fruit of several follicles.

subtruncate at tip, suture abruptly outcurved in distal 1/4; sepals 0.5–1.5 mm, ovate to 

oblong 

Longer than wide, with nearly parallel sides; wider than linear.

..... C. aquatica

5' Seeds with irregular, interrupted, longitudinal lines at 20×, shiny, glistening as if wet; follicles oblique-acute at tip, suture gradually outcurved in distal 1/2; sepals 0.4–1 mm, deltate-ovate to 

lanceolate 

Narrowly elongate, widest in the basal half, often tapered to an acute tip.

..... C. solieri

4' Flowers generally 2 per node; sepals >= petals; seeds (1)2; plants generally terrestrial but not on wet substrates; stems ± erect, not rooting at nodes

6. Flower parts generally in 3s; 

pedicels 

Stalk of an individual flower in an inflorescence, or the corresponding structure in fruit.

generally < 0.5 mm ..... C. tillaea

6' Flower parts generally in 4s or 5s; pedicels generally > 1.5 mm

7. Flower parts generally in 5s; leaves generally 4–5 mm, tip 

acute 

Having a short-tapered, sharp tip, the sides convex or straight and converging at less than a right angle.

, with short 

awn 

1. Bristle-like appendage or elongation, generally terminal. 2. Stiff, needle-like pappus element in Asteraceae.

or point; petals ± 1.2 mm, lanceolate ..... C. colligata subsp. lamprosperma

7' Flower parts generally in 4s; leaves generally < 4 mm, tip acute to rounded, without awn or point; petals generally < 1.2 mm, narrow-deltate ..... C. connata

Please use this Google Form for Contact/Feedback

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) . Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/ [accessed on ]

Citation for an individual treatment: [Author of taxon treatment] [year]. [Taxon name] in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, [URL for treatment]. Accessed on .

We encourage links to these pages, but the content may not be downloaded for reposting, repackaging, redistributing, or sale in any form, without written permission from The Jepson Herbarium.