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.
From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam
We now have specimens of this species from three counties. Dr. Clapp found it "on the cliffs of the Ohio above Utica, Clark County. Sept. 22, 1837." He said he found it in only two localities. I saw his specimens in the herbaria of the New York Botanical Garden, Purdue University, and Wabash College. In 1922 I found it in Harrison County on a very narrow ledge of rock near the top of the cliff along the Ohio River, in section 14 about 4 miles southeast of Laconia. The cliff at this place is about 300 feet above the river. I have had it in cultivation since that time and the flowers are nearly white to faintly pink. In 1936 R. M. Tryon, Jr., found it in Perry County on the sandstone cliffs near Magnet.
