Crassulaceae is a family of plants with succulent leaves and stems. There are about 35 genera and over 1500 species which occur in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe. The family is mostly distributed in the northern hemisphere and southern Africa. Members exist in herbs to shrubs forms. Most species are evergreen, but a few exceptions exist.
CAM photosynthesis (Crassulacean Acid Metabolism) is named after this family, because the pathway was first discovered in crassulacean plants. This is a specialized form of photosynthesis where CO2 is taken into plant tissue and converted into organic acids at night and fixed into glucose during the day. This prevents stomatas from opening during the day to conserve water in arid environments which these plants live.
We have the genera Crassula, Dudleya and Umbilicus represented on the wiki.