Herbs perennial. Rootstock thick. Stems arising from rootstock or persistent basal part of flowering stems, simple, glabrous, rarely pubescent. Leaves alternate or opposite, petiolate or sessile; leaf blade flat, margin serrate or crenate. Inflorescences terminal, cymose with 3 main branches, bractless, many flowered. Flowers sessile or nearly so, bisexual, mostly 5-merous. Sepals basally connate, fleshy, spurless. Petals spreading at anthesis, nearly free, bright yellow. Stamens 2 × as many as petals, in 2 series. Nectar scales entire or apex emarginate. Ovaries and follicles with adaxial outgrowth. Styles short, oblique or spreading at flowering. Follicles many seeded. Seeds striate.

A record of Phedimus stevenianus (Rouy & E. G. Camus) 't Hart (Sedum stevenianum Rouy & E. G. Camus, based on S. roseum Steven (1812), not (Linnaeus) Scopoli (1771)) from China by H. Léveillé (Cat. Pl. Yun-Nan, 62. 1916, as S. hametianum H. Léveillé, also based on S. roseum Steven) is based on a misidentification. True P. stevenianus occurs in the Caucasus region and has never been collected in China.

About 20 species: Asia, Europe; eight species (two endemic) in China.