Herbs, perennial, tufted, glabrous. Stems rootstocks, decumbent and ascending, branched, (sometimes papillose), bearing terminal rosettes and above ground shoots. Leaves (not easily detached), alternate, spreading-erect to erect or ascending, sessile; blade dull gray-green or bluish green, green, or reddish green, often glaucous, lanceolate, elliptic-lanceolate, or elliptic-ovate, subterete, 4.2-13 × 1.5-3.5 mm, base very short-spurred, base of withered blade at times becoming scarious, apex obtuse or obtusely apiculate, (surfaces papillose). Flowering shoots erect, simple or branched, 3-18 cm; leaf blades elliptic-lanceolate, base short-spurred; offsets not formed. Inflorescences cymes, 5-25-flowered, (1-)3(-6)-branched; branches ascending, spreading to erect, or recurved, forked; bracts similar to leaves. Pedicels absent or to 3 mm. Flowers 5-merous; sepals erect, connate basally, pale green to yellow-green, ovate or lanceolate, equal, 2-5 × 1-2 mm, apex acute or, rarely, obtuse, (often papillose); petals widely spreading from suberect base, distinct, canary to golden yellow, lanceolate, elliptic-lanceolate, or linear-lanceolate, canaliculate, 6-9.2 mm, apex acute to acuminate with minute mucronate appendage; filaments yellow; anthers yellow, sometimes suffused with red; nectar scales deep yellow to yellow-green, obovately square. Carpels erect in fruit, basally connate, brown. 2n = 16.

Sedum lanceolatum forms offsets in the axils of rosette leaves. The mature carpels have divergent beaks and narrow lips along the adaxial suture.

Plant: perennial herb, tufted, with fibrous roots and with slender branching stems 3-15 cm high in flower but often decumbent at base and with leafy short sterile branches Leaves: crowded, subterete, linear to lanceolate, subacute, 4-13 mm long, 1.5-3.5 mm wide, the lower often papillose INFLORESCENCE: CYMES often dense, short-branched, often 2-3 cm wide Flowers: yellow, 10-18 mm wide; sepals equal, triangular to lanceolate, acute, slightly united and not spurred, 2-5 mm long; petals triangular-lanceolate, acute to acuminate, 6-11 mm long; pistils erect, 4-9 mm high Fruit: follicles, erect, slender, 4-6 mm high, narrowing gradually to divergent styles. SEEDS pyriform, short-tailed, finely ribbed, brown, 1-1.3 mm long Misc: Granite outcrops, rocky soils; 1800-2800 m. REFERENCES: Moran, Reid. 1994. Bixaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 27, 190-194.