Genus Sedum Rank Species | ||
 | ||
Similar Sedum stenopetalum, Sedum divergens, Sedum glaucophyllum, Sedum oreganum, Sedum laxum | ||
Sedum lanceolatum is a species of flowering plant in the stonecrop family known by the common names spearleaf stonecrop and lanceleaf stonecrop.
It is native to western North America and occurs in western Canada and the United States. It is distributed from Alaska to Arizona and New Mexico and as far east as South Dakota and Nebraska. It grows in exposed, rocky mountainous habitat at moderate and high elevations, up to 4048 meters in the Rocky Mountains. The plant persisted and evolved on sky islands and nunataks in these ranges during glaciation events during the Pleistocene epoch.
This is a succulent plant forming basal rosettes of knobby or pointed leaves up to 3 centimeters long. Smaller leaves occur farther up the stem and often fall away by the time the plant blooms. The inflorescence is made up of one or more erect arrays of several flowers. The flowers have yellow petals sometimes tinged with red, each lance-shaped petal just under a centimeter long. The stamens are tipped with yellow anthers. The plant reproduces sexually by its tiny, lightweight seeds, or vegetatively when sections of its stem break off and root.
