Succulent, sedum like plants for sunny, well drained areas.
As with the related genus of ice-plants Hylotelephium, the flowerheads attract bumblebees, honeybees, hoverflies and butterflies in some abundance, although there is some degree of specialization given that Rhodiola is dioecious (it has separate male and female plants): foragers for pollen will only be successful on a male plant. The sole British species R. rosea is a scarce plant of exciting places (mountain cliffs and rocky western headlands and islands), and sadly in much of its circumpolar world range threatened by overexploitation for traditional 'medicine'.