Authors: L.  

Botanical Description

crowded rosettes to 2.5cm across, with abundant offsets, forming mats or low cushions. Leaves obovate, 7-12mm long by 3-5mm wide, the whole covered with fine, white, cobwebby hairs growing from the upper margins of the leaves. Stem leaves red-tipped with a tuft of fine hairs at the apex. Flowering stems 4-12cm tall carrying bright reddish-pink flowers 2cm across with eight to ten petals. Austria to Spain, in the mountains. S.a. subsp. arachnoideum has rounded rosettes usually less than 1.5cm across with sometimes sparse cobwebbing. Chiefly in the Alps. S.a, subsp. tomentosum (syn. S.a. 'Laggeri') has more flattened rosettes 1.5-2.5cm across and abundant cobwebbing. Found chiefly in Spain and the Pyrenees. S.a. 'Stansfieldii' has rosettes which turn plum-coloured during the spring and summer. [Pl.461].

Joint Rock: Joint Rock Awards, AGS Bakewell Show, 14 June 2015

a, S. arachnoideum; b, S. dolomiticum; c, S. montanum; d, S. tectorum;