Mt. Kenya is the biggest ancient extinct volcano in Great Rift Valley areas and straddles the equator and is located in the central part of Kenya. It is a reservoir of hundreds of plants including some endemic and endangered species.  

Since 2009, Prof. WANG Qingfeng's research team at Wuhan Botanical Garden of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has been focusing on plants diversity of Mt. Kenya, and organized a series of scientific investigation there.    

In January 2015, Sino-Africa Joint Investigation Team (SAJIT) had collected a special Sedum species of Crassulaceae from Chogoria Waterfall, Mt. Kenya. After their careful identification, this species was recognized as a new species of Kenya, and named as Sedum keniense Y. D. Zhou, G. W. Hu & Q. F. Wang. This article was published in Phytotaxa. 

Sedum L. is the largest genus within Crassulaceae, which contains about 430 species with the major diversity center in eastern Asia, Mediterranean, and North America. Four confirmed species of this genus have been recognized in tropical east Africa (Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania): S. churchillianum Robyns &Boutique, S.Crassularia Raymond –Hamet, S.meyeri-johannis Engler, and S. ruwenzoriense Baker f.

The new species was easily recognized by its farinose stems and leaves and comparatively larger inflorescences and flowers. It was similar to S.ruwenzoriense and S.meyeri-johannis, which were widely distributed in the high altitude regions of most mountains in East Africa.

This new species was only found near Chogoria Waterfall on Mt. Kenya, at an altitude of about 3184m. The species grows luxuriantly in wet places of cliff wall close to the waterfall and occasionally on tress.    

Sino-Africa Joint Research Center (SAJORIC), CAS and National Museum of Kenya have started the project of Flora of Kenya in November 2015. Publish of Sedum keniense was the initial results of the cooperation of Chinese and Kenyan researchers. 

Figure: Sedum keniense. A.Habitat; B. stem and leaves; C. inflorescences; D. bracts, sepals and flower buds; E. flower. Voucher: SAJIT 002822 (HIB). (Image by Y.D. Zhou.)