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Sedum stenopetalum; photograph (c) Daughter Dad, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Daughter Dad, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-06-21

Sedum stenopetalum Pursh

Worm-leaved stonecrop; Wormleaf stonecrop; Narrow-petaled stonecrop

Crassulaceae · Alberta, British Columbia +6

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Sedum stenopetalum, photograph (c) Daughter Dad, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sedum stenopetalum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedSedum stenopetalum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedSedum stenopetalum, photograph (c) James H. Thomas, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sedum stenopetalum, photograph (c) Parker James Lloyd, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sedum stenopetalum, photograph (c) Parker James Lloyd, some rights reserved (CC BY) 68 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-17.9°C
Record low -32.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
773mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
8–48DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes November to March and May to June, with nights below freezing; no growing season read. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Sedum stenopetalum, also known as wormleaf stonecrop or narrow-petaled stonecrop, is a species of flowering plant in the stonecrop family. It is native to western North America from British Columbia and Alberta to northern California to Wyoming. It can be found in many types of rocky habitat, such as cliffs, talus, and steep ridges. It is a succulent plant producing mats or clumps of lance-shaped, linear, or three-lobed leaves each under 2 centimeters long. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Sedum stenopetalum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Sedum

Sedum is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Crassulaceae, members of which are commonly known as stonecrops. The genus has been described as containing up to 600 species, subsequently reduced to 400–500. They are leaf succulents found primarily in the Northern Hemisphere, but extending into the southern hemisphere in Africa and South America. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Sedum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season and no growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (542 mm of 754 mm) falls in November to March and May to June, the cooler part of the year, but the mean nightly low is below freezing in February, March, April, December and January, so the rule reads no growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September and November to December.

Rain

754 mm in the median year at the habitat, 542 mm of it November to March and May to June. Wettest months (2 at 96 mm), driest month August at 27 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 454 mm to 1,383 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 773 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 754 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 48 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 6, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -17.9 °C, the absolute minimum -32.4 °C, 7,431 frost nights in 44 years, 168.9 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -7.8 °C in December (across the grid cells of the range -12.5 °C to -4.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.6 °C in July and August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -17.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 49 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +42 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Sedum stenopetalum through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month December, mean nightly low -7.8 °C; 754 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-40°-20°0°20°40°frost32.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-32.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 8–48RH 49–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 841 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C0 / -4–43 / -2–66 / 2–1010 / 6–1416 / 11–1920 / 16–2326 / 21–2826 / 21–2821 / 16–2413 / 9–164 / 0–7-1 / -5–3
Night °C-7 / -11–-4-6 / -11–-3-3 / -8–0-1 / -5–33 / -1–77 / 4–1111 / 8–1411 / 8–157 / 4–102 / -2–5-4 / -8–0-8 / -13–-4
Rain mm87 / 40–18466 / 31–13567 / 33–12959 / 33–10569 / 42–11361 / 35–11030 / 15–5927 / 14–5238 / 21–7058 / 34–11196 / 44–19996 / 45–217
DLI10 / 8–1316 / 14–2025 / 22–2935 / 32–3841 / 38–4444 / 41–4848 / 43–5042 / 37–4431 / 27–3519 / 16–2310 / 8–148 / 6–11
RH %64 / 59–6861 / 58–6459 / 57–6256 / 54–6055 / 52–5953 / 50–5849 / 45–5449 / 45–5452 / 48–5656 / 53–6163 / 59–6764 / 60–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 841 grid cells holding the 1347 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 884:1276 (45.775, -116.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -32.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -17.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 841 distinct grid cells holding 1347 of the 1347 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 884:1276 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 46.00_-116.250, lapse-corrected +42 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1159 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlberta, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, California · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker47.659, -117.425 · in the densest population, 961 records (58% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual or biennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1651 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1347 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 729 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 247 km away. 65 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 304 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1651 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Sedum stenopetalum, photograph 1did not loadSedum stenopetalum, photograph 2did not loadSedum stenopetalum, photograph 3did not loadSedum stenopetalum, photograph 4did not loadSedum stenopetalum, photograph 5did not loadSedum stenopetalum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Daughter Dad, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) James H. Thomas, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Parker James Lloyd, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Penstemon venustus Penstemon venustus Venus Beardtongue Photo: CC BY, Jared ShormaPenstemon wilcoxii Penstemon wilcoxii Wilcox's penstemon Photo: CC BY, Daughter DadMadia glomerata Madia glomerata Mountain tarweed Photo: CC BY, Zach EarlSilene douglasii Silene douglasii Douglas' campion Photo: CC0, author not statedCypripedium montanum Cypripedium montanum Mountain lady's slipper Photo: CC BY, Bryce JohnsonCeanothus velutinus Ceanothus velutinus Big buck-brush Photo: CC BY, machaut2

Other Sedum 114 in the reference

Sedum acre Sedum acre Biting stonecrop Photo: CC BY, Dmitriy BochkovSedum actinocarpum Sedum actinocarpum Crassulaceae Photo: CC BY, Francisca WuSedum adolphi Sedum adolphi Coppertone Stonecrop Photo: CC BY, chiuluanSedum album Sedum album White stonecrop Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinha Sedum alexanderi Crassulaceae Sedum allantoides Sedum allantoides Crassulaceae Photo: CC BY, Leonardo O. Alvarado CárdenasSedum alpestre Sedum alpestre Alpine Stonecrop Photo: CC0, author not statedSedum andegavense Sedum andegavense Crassulaceae Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinhaSedum anglicum Sedum anglicum English stonecrop Photo: CC BY, Jon DaviesSedum annuum Sedum annuum Annual stonecrop Photo: CC BY, Andreas SchneiderSedum atratum Sedum atratum Crassulaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Emanuele SantarelliSedum bellum Sedum bellum Crassulaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, El Funcionario all 115 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Sedum caerulescens; Sedum stenopetalum subsp. typicum. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Crassulaceae
Described by
Pursh
Native to
Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho +5
Wild records
1651 in range · 729 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 8 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (6 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 46.00_-116.250, lapse-corrected +42 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Sedum stenopetalum Pursh (the item's: IPNI 276107-1, POWO 284831-2)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 73 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…