The Yellow Stonecrop on the right surely stands out with the red rock in the background. The Sedum genus was named by Linnaeus in 1753. Edwin Greene collected the first specimens of this species for science in the Pikes Peak area of Colorado in 1820 and John Torrey named this plant Sedum lanceolatum in 1827.

"Amerosedum" means "American Sedum" and "lanceolatum" describes the leaf shape, lance-like, i.e., broader at the bottom and tapering gradually and evenly to a point -- although leaves can also be elliptic to ovate. "Sedum" is from the Latin "sedo", "to sit," and refers to the fact that some species attach themselves to stones. The common name, "Stonecrop", could have one of several archaic word meanings: these Sedums are "the crop produced by stones" or they are "the top [i.e. the "crop"] of the stones".