Herbs, perennial, tufted, glabrous. Stems decumbent, branched, bearing erect rosettes. Leaves opposite and decussate (rarely alternate), ascending, sessile; blade pale green, speckled with pink, sometimes pink or red, glaucous, usually elliptic, oblanceolate, or obovate, sometimes ovate-elliptic, subterete, ± globular, 4.2-7.2 × 2.8-4.3 mm, base not spurred, (clasping), not scarious, apex widely rounded or sometimes weakly emarginate, (surfaces minutely papillose). Flowering shoots erect, decumbent, or ascending, simple, 3-12 cm; leaf blades ovate-elliptic, base not spurred; offsets not formed. Inflorescences cymes, 2-7-flowered, 2-branched; branches not recurved, forked; bracts similar to leaves, smaller. Pedicels to 1.2 mm. Flowers 5-merous; sepals erect, connate basally, pale green, glaucous, lanceolate, equal, 2-4.2 × 1.3-2 mm, apex obtuse, (papillose); petals basally erect, distally spreading, connate basally, yellow, elliptic-lanceolate, slightly carinate, 6-9 mm, apex obtuse with mucronate appendage; filaments yellow; anthers yellow, (sometimes compressed and winged); nectar scales yellow, orange-red, or salmon-pink, reniform to square. Carpels erect or ascending in fruit, connate basally, straw colored with purple stripes. 2n = 14-18.

Flowering summer. Open, rocky places; 1500-3500 m; Idaho, Mont., Nev., N.Mex., Oreg., Utah, Wyo.

The axillary, almost globular, rosettes of Sedum debile are the primary mode of propagation in this species (R. T. Clausen 1975).