Live-forever, American orpine

Sedum telephioides Michaux, Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 277. 1803; Anacampseros telephioides (Michaux) Haworth

Stems 2-4(-6) dm × 3-10 mm, from short rootstocks with pale brown, stout roots. Leaves opposite or mostly alternate, sessile or short-petiolate, becoming scarcely smaller distally; blade green or yellow-green, often glaucous, ovate to obovate, oblanceolate, or spatulate, 2-11 × 0.5-4.5 cm, base cuneate, margins entire to remotely or coarsely dentate, apex acute to rounded. Cymes lax, 3-15 cm diam. Pedicels ca. 2 mm. Flowers fertile, 5-16 mm diam.; sepals lanceolate, 2-4 mm; petals white or pink-tinged to pinkish, with greenish keel, 4-8 mm; stamens 5, ca. 1/2 as long as petals; pistils 5, 3-4 mm; styles 1.5-2 mm; nectaries pinkish, quadrate, 0.5-1 mm, wider than long. 2n = 24.

Flowering summer. On rocks, ledges and crevices of cliffs, rocky slopes, crests of bluffs, rocky woods; 50-2000 m; Ont.; Ill., Ind., Ky., Md., Mich., Minn., N.C., Ohio, Pa., S.C., Va., W.Va.

Hylotelephium telephioides is a rare escape from cultivation, where it is not native in the flora area. R. T. Clausen (1975) discredited reports of this plant for Georgia and New York.