Latin Iovis — of Jupiter, barba — beard.
Perennial herbs with leaves in rosettes, producing flowers once only. Leaves alternate, fleshy, leaf margins with long hairs, not deciduous. Flowers in terminal clusters on long stems, bell-shaped. Sepals and petals 6-7, sepals united at the base and hairy, petals free, pale yellow, keeled. Stamens mostly 12, with hairy filaments.
Very similar to Sempervivum and sometimes included in that genus. Mostly grown in specialist collections for the unusual succulent rosette forms.
2-6 species (depending on authority) from Europe.
Stoloniferous species by growing the offsets. Non-stoloniferous species (J. heuffelii) by dividing off the axillary buds or by division of rosette.
Very similar to Sempervivum but flowers bell-shaped; petals 6-7, pale yellow, more or less keeled on the back, fringed with glandular hairs and erect. (There are also differences in pollen morphology.)
Praeger (1932), Mitchell (1973).
Source: (2002). Crassulaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
