Botanical atlas
Mountain Houseleek
Sempervivum montanum
This plant is kept in the atlas for identification and safety, not for use. Read the safety notes below before handling it, and keep it away from children, cats, and food.
Long before it was a rock garden favorite, the mountain houseleek was a fixture of alpine cottage life, tucked into stone walls and thatched roofs across the high villages of Europe. Households prized it less as medicine and more as a household guardian, its thick, ever-green rosettes seeming to defy the thin soil and brutal weather that killed everything around them. When skin needed soothing, a leaf was split open on the spot and its cool, mucilaginous gel pressed to the sting, scrape, or sunburn, much the way aloe is used today. The plant's Latin name, sempervivum, means always living, a nod to a rosette that can be plucked, left on a shelf for weeks, and still take root.
Safety.
Mountain houseleek is generally safe for topical use, with no significant toxicity documented; it's used on the skin rather than eaten.
Our sister app HerbLens identifies mountain houseleek from a photo and keeps its full botanical portrait: growing guide, harvest notes, and look-alike warnings.
View on HerbLensHerbSense shares traditional herbal knowledge for education, not diagnosis or treatment. Herbs can interact with medicines and conditions. Speak with your doctor before acting on anything here, and seek care promptly for anything severe, sudden, or worsening.