Herbs perennial. Stems simple or apically branched, ascending, 10-20 cm. Leaves alternate proximally on stem, usually deciduous, crowded distally on stem; leaf blade linear-cuneate, spatulate, or obovate, 1.2-3 × 0.2-0.6 cm, base narrowly cuneate and spurred, apex obtuse and sometimes emarginate. Cyme corymbiform, 5-8 cm in diam., many flowered; bracts leaflike, small. Flowers sessile, unequally 5-merous, ca. 1 mm in diam. Sepals linear-spatulate, 3-5 × 1-1.5 mm, base spurred. Petals yellow, lanceolate to lanceolate-oblong, 4-6 × 1.6-1.8 mm, base connate, apex mucronate. Stamens 10; antesepalous ones ca. 4 mm; antepetalous ones ca. 2.5 mm, inserted 1-1.5 mm from petal base. Nectar scales spatulate-quadrangular, ca. 1.2 mm, apex obtusely truncate. Carpels erect, ovoid-lanceolate, ca. 4 mm, base connate. Styles ca. 1 mm. Follicles obliquely divergent. Seeds numerous, brown, ca. 0.6 mm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-Aug.

Sedum shitaiense Y. Zheng & D. C. Zhang (in Y. Zheng et al., Bull. Bot. Res., Harbin 20: 246. 2000), described from Anhui, is known to the present authors only from the protologue. It was compared to S. emarginatum and S. kiangnanense, from which it was separated by its mostly alternate leaves, although these and other features suggest a closer relationship to S. alfredii, from which it may be separable by its larger (ca. 1 × 0.5 mm), tuberculate seeds.

Shady moist rocks on forested slopes; 2000-3000 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea].