The succulent CAM (Crassulacean acid metabolism) plant Sempervivum tectorum L. is highly adaptable to wide range of environments, a medicinal plant, whose leaf extract has both, antioxidative and antimicrobial activity. This study is aimed to determine anatomical changes in leaves of S. tectorum L. after long term exposure to toxic concentration of Cd and to long termed soil-drought. In order to characterize anatomical and morphological traits of leaf (thickness, size of epidermal cells, mesophyll height, total surface of leaf cross-section), surface of vascular bundles, epidermal and mesophyll cells have been examined. Under both treatments, the most pronounced changes were in leaf thickness and size of mesophyll cells, while no significant changes in anatomy of epidermis and vascular bundles were noticed.
