Sedum L, Sp. Pl. ed. 1. 430. 1753; Gen. Pl. ed. 5. 197. 1754; C.B.Clarke in Hook.f., Brit. Ind. 2: 417. 1879; Boriss. in Kom., Fl. USSR 9: 36. 1971 (Engl. transl.); C.A.Jansson & Rech. f. in Rech.f., Fl. Iran. 72: 4. 1970; D.F.Chamb. in P.H.Davis, Fl. Turkey 4: 224. 1972; H. Ohba in Bot. Mag. Tokyo 90: 46. 1977; in J. Fac. Sci. Univ. Tokyo 3. 12: 173. 1978; Grierson & D.G.Long, Fl. Bhutan 1(3): 484. 1987; Aswal & Mehrotra, Fl. Lahaul-Spiti. 255. 1994; Fu Kunjun & H. Ohba in Wu Zheng-yi & P.H.Raven, Fl. China 8: 221. 2001.
Annual or perennial herbs or rarely subshrubs mostly succulent. Scaly basal leaves absent. Rosulate leaves absent. Stem erect or ascending, creeping, branched, rarely simple, deciduous. Cauline leaves petiolate or sessile, simple, alternate, opposite, verticillate, entire to variously toothed or lobed. Inflorescence terminal, corymbose, paniculate, racemose, cymose or reduced to a single flower. Flowers bisexual, 3-9-merous, small, sessile or pedicellate. Sepals free or basally connate, fleshy, green (often reddish). Petals membranaceous, mostly free rarely basally connate. Stamens usually twice as many as or rarely as many as petals, basifixed, dithecous, shorter than petals. Nectar scales small, as many as and dorsally placed on the carpels. Carpels as many as petals, basally connate or nearly free, style usually short. Fruit consisting of erect or spreading follicles. Seeds few to many per fruit, small, brown, smooth to longitudinally striae or minutely puncticulate.
A genus of c. 470 species, distributed mainly in the North temperate zone, and Eurasia, widely distributed in the Himalayas, China and Japan. Represented in Pakistan by 5 species.
