Red orpine, rose crown

Sedum rhodanthum A. Gray, Amer. J. Sci. Arts, ser. 2, 33: 405. 1862

Plants synoecious. Rootstock erect or decumbent, to 0.5-2 cm diam. Floral stems often persistent, 10-60 × 0.2-0.6 cm. Leaf blades green, not glaucous, linear-oblong to linear-oblanceolate, 1-4.5 × 0.2-0.7 cm, margins entire or few-toothed, apex mostly acute. Inflorescences spikelike or subcapitate, dense, to ca. 50-flowered, 1-3.5 cm diam. Pedicels mostly to 5 mm. Flowers bisexual, mostly 5-6-merous; sepals linear-lanceolate, 3-9 mm; petals nearly erect with tips outcurved, greenish or white to rose, linear-lanceolate to linear-oblanceolate, 6-13 mm, longer than stamens. Follicles 6-9 mm, beaks erect. Seeds short-tailed, oblong, 2 mm. 2n = 14.

Flowering summer. Wet meadows, stream banks, rockfields, rock crevices; 2000-4200 m; Ariz., Colo., Mont., N.Mex., Utah, Wyo.

Rhodiola rhodantha is placed in subg. Clementsia; the only other species in this subgenus is R. semenovii (Regel & Herder) Borissava, of Turkestan, with longer, narrower, entire leaves.