Sedum coccineum Royle
Perennial dioecious herb. Root long slender. Rhizome thick, elongated, 1-3 cm wide. Scaly radical leaves on the apical part of the rhizome. Flowering stems 2-10 in number on each rhizome, simple, erect, glabrous, stramineous, brownish or purplish red, smooth to papillate-scabrid, 1-5 cm high, 0.3-2 mm wide at anthesis, old flowering stems persistent. Cauline leaves alternate, sessile, entire, obtuse, glabrous, linear, linear-lanceolate, 3-7 x 0.6-1.5 mm. Inflorescence terminal, dichasium, usually reduced to a single flower, bracteate. Bracts similar to the cauline leaves. Flowers red, rarely yellow, unisexual, 4-5 merous, pedicellate. Calyx 1.5-4 x 0.5-1.5 mm, lobes basally connate, entire, acute, obtuse or acuminate, glabrous, oblong, triangular-oblong, lanceolate. Petals entire, obtuse, glabrous, subobovate, oblong-ovate, oblong-obovate, lanceolate, broadly oblong, 1.5-4 x 0.7-2 mm. Stamens 8-10, longer or as long as the petals, in two whorls, basifixed, epipetalous 1.5-2.5 mm long, alternipetalous 3-4 mm long. Pistillodes 1.5-3.5 x 0.2-0.8 mm, style 0.2-0.4 mm long. Carpels 3-6 x 1-1.5 mm, style indistinct. Nectar scales oblong, 0.5-1.3 x 0.3-0.5 mm. Follicles 4-7 x 0.5-1.2 mm. Seeds 4-12 per fruit, ellipsoidal, 1-1.8 x 0.2-0.5 mm, brown, terminally winged.
Two subspecies are recognized in our region.
