An attractive native Sedum that likes rocky hillsides in open woods. This one grew on a small stone outcropping on a wooded hillside in Mount Lebanon, where it was blooming in the middle of May.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
SEDUM [Tourn.] L. STONECROP. ORPINE. Calyx-lobes and
petals 4-5. Stamens 8-10. Follicles many-seeded; a
little scale at the base of each. Chiefly perennial
smooth and thick-leaved herbs, with cymose or
one-sided inflorescence. Petals almost always narrow
and acute or pointed. (Name from sedere, to
sit, alluding to the manner in which these plants fix
themselves upon rocks and walls.)
S. ternatum Michx. Stems spreading, 7-15 cm. high; leaves flat, the lower whorled in threes, wedge-obovate, the upper scattered, oblong; cyme 3-spiked, leafy; petals white. Rocky woods, Ct. to Ga., w. to Mich., Ind., and Tenn. May.