Rhodiola rhodantha (A.Gray) H.Jacobsen

Plants synoecious. Rootstock erect or decumbent, to 0.5-2 cm diam. Floral stems often persistent, 10-60 × 0.2-0.6 cm. Leaf blades green, not glaucous, linear-oblong to linear-oblanceolate, 1-4.5 × 0.2-0.7 cm, margins entire or few-toothed, apex mostly acute. Inflorescences spikelike or subcapitate, dense, to ca. 50-flowered, 1-3.5 cm diam. Pedicels mostly to 5 mm. Flowers bisexual, mostly 5-6-merous; sepals linear-lanceolate, 3-9 mm; petals nearly erect with tips outcurved, greenish or white to rose, linear-lanceolate to linear-oblanceolate, 6-13 mm, longer than stamens. Follicles 6-9 mm, beaks erect. Seeds short-tailed, oblong, 2 mm. 2n = 14.

Wet meadows, stream banks, rockfields, rock crevices; at elevations from 2,000-4,200 metres. Moist places in tundra or in meadows and by streams in the Rocky Mountains to 2700 metres.

The young shoots are cut into small pieces and mixed with lettuce in a salad. The young leaves can be eaten raw or cooked as a potherb.

Can be grown by divisions or seedlings.