Sedum spathulifolium Purpureum

Common Name:
Broadleaf Stonecrop
Purple Stonecrop

Description:
Sedum spathulifolium ‘Purpureum’ is a compact, low-growing succulent ground cover admired for its tight rosettes of fleshy foliage in smoky grey-green to purple-bronze tones. This attractive variety is especially valued for its changing leaf colour, which intensifies in cooler weather and adds year-round contrast to rockeries, retaining walls, gravel gardens, and decorative pots. In Melbourne, it performs best in a full sun to lightly shaded position with sharply drained soil and is ideal for waterwise planting schemes and low-maintenance garden designs. During spring to early summer, mature plants produce clusters of bright yellow star-shaped flowers that rise above the foliage and provide a vivid seasonal contrast. Once established, it is highly drought tolerant and easy to maintain, making it an excellent choice for exposed sites, succulent bowls, edging, and alpine-style plantings where texture and colour are key.

Form:
• Ground Cover
• Shrub - Clumping / Grass-like / Mounding

Mature Size:
• Height: 10–15 cm
• Width: 20–40 cm, spreading wider over time

Aspect:
• Full Sun
• Part Shade

Flowering:
• Flowers in Spring
• Flowers in Summer

Flower Colour:
• Yellow

Key Attributes:
• Suitable for Pots
• Bee Attracting
• Perennial
• Drought tolerant once established
• Suitable for rockeries
• Suitable for edging
• Succulent
• Evergreen
• Purple-bronze foliage
• Low maintenance
• Ideal for waterwise gardens
• Suitable for retaining walls
• Suitable for alpine gardens
• Excellent foliage contrast

Toxicity:
Not generally considered toxic to humans or pets. As with most ornamental succulents, ingestion may still cause mild stomach upset if consumed in quantity.

Companion Plants:
• Echeveria
• Sempervivum
• Sedum ‘Dragon’s Blood’
• Cerastium tomentosum
• Senecio serpens
• Delosperma
• Festuca glauca
• Thymus serpyllum (Creeping Thyme)