Fleshy mostly glabrous herbs, erect or decumbent, mainly with alternate, often imbricated, entire or dentate leaves, and perfect flowers in terminal often 1-sided cymes. Calyx 4-5-lobed. Petals 4-5, distinct. Stamens 8-10, perigynous, the alternate ones usually attached to the petals. Filaments filiform or subulate. Scales of the receptacle entire or emarginate. Carpels 4-5, distinct, or united at the base, spreading; styles usually short; ovules . Follicles many-seeeded or few-seeded. [Latin, to sit, from the lowly habit of these plants.]

About 200 species, mostly natives of temperate and cold regions of the northern hemisphere, but many in the mountains of Mexico and a few in the Andes of South America. Besides the following, about 15 others occur in the western parts of North America. Type species: Sedum Telephium L.

Cyme regular, compound, the flowers not secund; leaves broad, flat.

Petals purple; plant somewhat glaucous; petals twice as long as sepals.

1.

S. triphyllum.

Petals pink; plant very glaucous; petals 3-4 times as long as the sepals.

2.

S. telephioides.

Flowers secund along the branches of the cyme.

Petals yellow.

Leaves short, thick, ovate, densely imbricated.

3.

S. acre.

Leaves linear or terete, scattered on the stems.

Annual; petals little longer than the sepals.

4.

S. Nuttallianum.

Perennial; petals twice as long as the sepals.

Plant 3'-6' high; native, western.

5.

S. stenopctalum.

Plant 8'-12' high; introduced in a few places.

6.

S.reflexum.

Petals purple or white.

Leaves terete; petals purple, pink, or white.

7.

S.pulchellum.

Leaves flat, spatulate or obovate; petals white.

Lower leaves verticillate in 3's.

8.

S. ternatum.

Leaves all alternate.

9.

S. Nevii.

3 Sedum Tourn L Sp Pl 430 1753 476