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Crystalline Ice Plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum L.)

Also known as common ice plant, common iceplant, crystalline iceplant.

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a dull green succulent growing on a slope with eroding, exposed soil
Photo © mel letterman, CC BY 4.0.

Range - Expand

LegendColor
Introduced
Introduced but Eliminated
Introduced or Not Present
Not Present

This map is based on our research. We have checked its accuracy to Level 3 ecoregions. Although this plant occurs somewhere in each of these regions, it may only occur in a small part of some or all of them.

This species is invasive and widespread along the drier portions of the West Coast; in the East it has been reported in PA along the Delaware River but likely did not persist there.

Notes

We prefer the common name "Crystalline Ice Plant" over the name "common iceplant" because it corresponds in a one-to-one way to the scientific epithet crystallinum, and also because, in North America, both this species and the closely-related slenderleaf iceplant (Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum) are common in much of California where they are invasive.

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum (common iceplant) | USDA PLANTS Database (About This Site)

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum | Biota of North America Project (BONAP) (About This Site)

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum | NatureServe Explorer (About This Site)

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum | Flora of North America (About This Site)

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum L. | Plants of the World Online (POWO) (About This Site)

Photo gallery

Photo © mel letterman, CC BY 4.0.
a dull green succulent growing on a slope with eroding, exposed soil
Photo © mel letterman, CC BY 4.0.