Beautiful patches of biting stonecrop
Photos: Arne Ader
Translation: Liis
Biting stonecrop
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Biting stonecrop; common stonecrop
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Harilik kukehari
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One of our smallest plants, the common or biting stonecrop, flowers. Despite its tiny size the plant is always visible in dry meadows or on beaches, the flowers stretch during the flowering and become almost three times longer.
The patches of stonecrop consist of stems growing tightly together and set densely with fleshy leaves. Like this the stonecrop can grow in very dry and poor conditions because it can use water reserves in the leaves during dry periods; in rain new reserves are set up.
The ripe seeds of the stonecrop are tiny – one gram is estimated to contain up to 24 000 seeds, which spread with rain and probably also with ants.
Seashore at Förby, Vormsi
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