| Jovibarba | ||||||||||||
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 Jovibarba globifera, showing larger mother plants and smaller, globe-shaped offsets ("globi") | ||||||||||||
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Jovibarba ("beard of Jove") is a small genus of three species of succulents in the family Crassulaceae, endemic to Europe. The genus is closely related to Sempervivum, and was formerly considered a subgenus of it. Jovibarba have pale-greenish-yellow or yellow bell-shaped flowers with six petals, while Sempervivum has actinomorphic flowers with more than six petals. The common name Hen and chicks is applied to some Jovibarba species (and also species in several other related genera).
In addition to sexual propagation by seeds and propagation by offsets, the species Jovibarba heuffelii also propagates by dividing rosettes.
- Species
Only three species are accepted as distinct by the Flora Europaea:
- Jovibarba globifera (syn. J. sobolifera; Sempervivum globifera)
- Jovibarba heuffelii (syn. J. velenovskyi; Sempervivum heuffelii)
- Jovibarba hirta (syn. Sempervivum hirta)
Jovibarba globifera and its subspecies (subsp. hirtum, subsp. allionii, subsp. arenaria) live in the eastern and southern Alps, the Carpathians and the western Balkans south to northern Albania. J. heuffelii occurs in the remainder of the Balkans and the eastern Carpathians, southeast of J. globifera. J. hirta occurs further west, in the southwestern Alps.