Biting stonecrop or White stonecrop: how to tell them apart?
Biting stonecrop and White stonecrop look alike and are often mixed up. Here is how to tell them apart, feature by feature, with their photos and the details to look for.
⚡ The quick answer
Biting stonecrop
Sedum acre
White stonecrop
Sedum album
White stonecrop has longer, almost cylindrical, blue-green leaves, with white flowers in a corymb, whereas biting stonecrop has small, very fleshy leaves like tightly packed scales and bright yellow flowers, with a hot, peppery taste.
🍃 Leaves
Evergreen, tiny, fleshy, overlapping, bright green
Evergreen, small, fleshy, cylindrical, green turning red in full sun
🌸 Flowers
Small bright yellow stars densely covering the mat
Small white stars in dense corymbs, very rich in nectar
🍎 Fruits
Small dry follicles
Small dry follicles
🪵 Bark
Creeping stems forming a very dense mat
Creeping stems forming a dense mat
📏 Size
5 to 10 cm tall, forming a mat
5 to 10 cm tall, forming a mat
🗺️ Habitat
Walls, roofs, rock gardens, all soils even very poor ones
Low walls, roofs, rock gardens, all soils even poor ones
⚠️ Toxicity
Slightly toxic and acrid-tasting, may irritate the skin and mucous membranes on contact or ingestion.
No notable toxicity known.
🔎 And from the White stonecrop side
White stonecrop has longer, almost cylindrical, blue-green leaves, with white flowers in a corymb, whereas biting stonecrop has small, very fleshy leaves like tightly packed scales and bright yellow flowers, with a hot, peppery taste.
🌿 Go further
Want to practise spotting these details on real photos? Floraneo offers profiles and quizzes for dozens of look-alike species.
ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.