WikiBotanicals:Dudleya

Dudleya is a large genus of succulent plant, one with about 80 species, which are native to the western parts of the United States and Mexico. They have rosettes of white-powdered leaves, but some vary in colour from pale green to grey-green. The flowers are white, pale yellow, yellowish-pink, and red.

Background
Dudleya species are widespread in their range, typically found in rock outcroppings, cliff faces, or road cuts, where their leaves help them store water in a setting too dry for most types of plants. Most are small and inconspicuous when not in bloom.

The genus is named after William Russell Dudley, the first head of the botany department at Stanford University.

Species
D. abramsii. California. The thick, waxy leaves are triangular to oblong and usually pointed, reaching up to 11 centimeters in length. The inflorescence is a mostly erect, branching stem lined with pointed bracts and bearing up to 15 flowers.

D. anthonyi.

D. attenuata. (Orcutt's live-forever or Tapertip live-forever). Formerly in Echeveria, sometimes included in D. edulis.

D. blochmaniae. California. (Blochman's live-forever). grows somewhat erect, with cone-shaped, horn-shaped, or triangular succulent leaves along its stem. The plant may be brown, reddish-purple, or greenish. It bears a branching inflorescence with a few flowers per branch, each opening into a star-shaped bloom with five pointed white petals, sometimes with streaks of red. Varieties:
 * D. b. brevifolia. California.  (Short-leaved Live-forever).  It grows into a somewhat erect, small (1-4 cm), cryptic, and corn-like succulent perennial with cone-shaped leaves along its hidden stem.  It may be brown, reddish-purple, or greenish and bears a branching inflorescence with a few flowers per branch, each opening into a star-shaped bloom with five pointed petals.

D. brittonii. Mexico. (Britton's dudleya). leaves grow in a basal rosette and are covered with a dusty, chalky, mealy white epicuticular "wax". The wax in its mealy state on the leaves is attracted to water and coats drops on the leaves and prevents their evaporation.

D. caespitosa. California. starts from a rosette up to 20 centimeters wide, containing up to 30 leaves. The leaves are fleshy, pale green, and cone-shaped to oblong, one or two centimeters wide and almost a centimeter thick. The stem is a caudex which grows erect up to about 20 centimeters in height before branching into the inflorescence.

D. calcicola. Sierra Nevada. (Limestone live-forever). grows a rosette of leaves up to about 10 centimeters wide, each leaf blade-shaped to cone-shaped and up to 10 centimeters long and one wide. The leaves are fleshy and hairless, generally pale green, often tinted with pink or yellow. From the rosette bolts an erect stem, which is a caudex topped with a multi-branched inflorescence. The stem and branches may be dark to very light and almost white in color. Each branch may be several centimeters long and bear two to eight flowers. The flowers are very pale yellow to reddish-yellow and have sharply pointed petals one to one and a half centimeters long.

D. candelabrum. California. (Candleholder live-forever). Dudleya candelabrum is plant grows from a basal rosette of leaves up to half a meter wide atop a thick, hardy caudex. Each leaf is a pale green to pinkish-green spade shape with a sharp point. The unbranched stem is generally erect but often bending under the weight of the inflorescence it holds. The inflorescence branches and holds up to 25 knobby flowers on each branch. The flower has yellowish petals within its pink-tinged green sepals.

D. candida. Mexico. grouped rosettes, up to 3 feet in diameters, each rosette 2.8 to 8 inches in diameter; 30 to 70 leaves, 2.4 to 6 inches long.

D. cultrata. Mexico. Succulent rosette, 3 inches in diameter. Pale yellow flowers on an 8-inch tall inflorescence.

D. cymosa. California and Southern Oregon mountains. (Canyon live-forever). It is a distinctive plant sending up erect red-orange stems from a gray-green basal rosette. The small yellowish-red thimble-shaped flowers top the stems in a cyme inflorescence. Some subspecies are considered threatened locally. Varieties:
 * D. c. costafolia - California.
 * D. c. crebrifolia - San Gabriel River
 * D. c. marcescens - marcescent dudleya
 * D. c. ovatifolia - Santa Monica Mountains.

D. densiflora. California. (San Gabriel Mountains live-forever). A unique plant, different in appearance from other dudleyas with its long, snakelike leaves. Each leaf is up to 15 centimeters long and cylindric up to its pointed tip, and it is covered with a soft, grainy powder. From this clump of leaves emerges an erect stem with a branched inflorescence, each branch bearing 2 to 8 light colored flowers, usually very light pink to white.

D. edulis. Southern and Baja California. (fingertips). Dudleya edulis, the fingertips, is made up of an array of fleshy, snakelike leaves growing vertically from a caudex at or just below ground level. The fingerlike leaves are pale green, cylindrical and pointed, growing up to 20 centimeters tall. It also bears a branching inflorescence with several terminal branches each bearing up to 10 or 11 flowers. The flowers have pointed white petals about a centimeter long.

D. farinosa. Mexico, California, Oregon. Has narrow leaves, 2 1/2 to 3 inches in length, and about 1/2 inch wide, covered with a white powered. Flowers, greenish-yellow. This dudleya is variable in appearance from drab to spectacular. It grows from a branching caudex and forms a basal rosette of wide, pointed, spade-shaped leaves, each up to about six centimeters across. The leaves are generally very pale green but they often have edges or tips of bright colors, particularly bright reds. The plant erects a tall stem which is pale green with pink or red tinting, atop which it bears a branching inflorescence with many pale to bright yellow flowers.

D. greenei. Channel Islands of California. (Greene's live-forever). Grows from a small, thick caudex a few centimeters wide and produces rosettes of fleshy, pointed leaves up to 11 centimeters long. The inflorescence is borne on an erect peduncle up to 40 centimeters tall. The peduncle and foliage are variably green and pink. The inflorescence branches at the top and holds many fleshy yellowish flowers.

D. guadalupensis. Mexico and Baja California.

D. ingens. Baja California. (Baja Live-forever). Nice flattened leaves. flowers white or pink.

D. lanceolata. California and Baja California. (Lanceleaf live-forever). This dudleya has fleshy, pointed leaves of variable shape and size, from a basal rosette of flat, spade-shaped leaves to bunches of longer, thicker leaves. It is generally 1 foot (30 cm) tall and wide. Its stem is erect and bears a branching inflorescence with up to 20 flowers on each of its few branches. The flowers are generally bright yellow, pink, or red, with pale green bases.

D. linearis. Baja California and Islas San Benito.

D. multicaulis. Southern California. (manystem live-forever). This plant grows few short, fingerlike cylindrical leaves with pointed tips. It is dominated by its erect stem, which is topped with a branching inflorescence bearing up to 15 flowers on each long, thin branch. The flowers have pointed yellow petals up to a centimeter long, and long stamens.

D. nesiotica. Santa Cruz Island. (Santa Cruz Island live-forever). Dudleya nesiotica bears a few pointed or rounded leaves during the winter months when moisture is available, and it goes dormant during the summer, leaving behind only its tough caudex. It blooms in short inflorescences of small white star-shaped flowers. It is self-compatible, so it can reproduce without receiving the pollen of another plant.

D. pachyphytum - Baja California. (Cedros Island Live-forever). Clustered rosettes, 5 to 10 inches wide (12 to 25 cm) leaves are covered with wax.

D. palmeri California. (Palmer's live-forever). forms a basal rosette of leaves up to 20 centimeters wide and containing up to 25 lance-shaped leaves in shades of pale to bright green, sometimes tinted with pink. It erects a tall, pink to green stem carrying a small, branching inflorescence of up to about 40 flowers. Each flower is yellow to red or pink with pointed petals between one and two centimeters long.

D. saxosa. Peninsular Ranges and the sky islands in Mojave Desert mountains. (Panamint live-forever). grows a basal clump or rosette of fleshy leaves, which may be flat and blade-shaped to somewhat cylindrical. It bolts one or more erect stems which are usually dull pink to red in color, sometimes with pale green coloration. Atop the stems are compact inflorescences of flowers with bright yellow petals. Varieties:
 * D. s. saxosa.  Panamint Mountains.  Differs from other subspecies mainly in size.
 * D. s. aloides. Peninsular Ranges and desert mountains of Southern California.
 * D. s. collomiae.

D. setchellii. Santa Clara Valley. (Santa Clara Valley Dudleya). blooms in the spring, with pale yellow flowers on vertical stems about a foot high. Found only in the Coyote Valley area of southern Santa Clara County, California, mostly on rocky outcrops within serpentine grasslands on Tulare Hill and Santa Teresa Hill west of Coyote Creek in south San Jose and south of Metcalf Canyon east of Coyote Creek.

D. stolonifera. Orange County, California. (Laguna Beach live-forever). grows from an unbranched caudex stem and is unusual among related plants in that it has stolons from which it sprouts vegetatively. Dudleya stolonifera produces a small rosette of pointed reddish-green leaves and erects a short stem topped with an inflorescence. The flowers are bright yellow.

D. traskiae. Santa Barbara Island. (Santa Barbara Island live-forever). Dudleya traskiae is a perennial succulent herb with foliage leaves in a basal rosette. The plants are evergreen, with a branched primary stem (caudex) and are composed of one to several hundred rosettes. The branching of the stem is dichotomous. The rosette leaves number 25-35, are strap-shaped - oblanceolate to subacuminate and are 4-15 cm long and 1-4 cm wide. Leaves may be green or glaucous with a waxy covering. The flowering stems are axillary and flowering is indeterminate in paniculate or cymose clusters. The petals (5) are bright yellow, often with red veins, fused below and curving outward in the upper half. Stamens (10) are borne on the corolla tube. The fruit is composed of 5 carpels that are spreading in age, 7-8 mm long. Seeds are many and minute, narrow and pointed. Dudleya traskiae is tetraploid with a chromosome number of 34. Flowering most commonly occurs from May-July, although flowering may begin as early as mid-February.

D. variegata. Baja California. (variegated live-forever). fleshy perennial forming a small basal cluster of leaves around a small stem. The thick leaves are spoon-shaped to oblong to spherical or globular. The inflorescence is a mostly erect, branching stem up to 20 centimeters tall splitting into branches nearly as long. Each branch bears several flowers with fleshy triangular sepals and longer yellow petals.

D. virens. California and Baja California. (Catalina live-forever). leaves are fleshy and strap-shaped, 8-20 cm long and 1.5-3 cm broad, tapering from the base (or from near middle) and are mostly green. They are arranged in a rosette. The flowers are white, with five petals 7-10 mm long; they are produced in April, May, and June. Hummingbirds visit the flowers for their nectar.

D. viscida. Southern California. (sticky live-forever). plant has a basal clump of erect fleshy, pointed leaves which are nearly cylindrical or most often elliptical in cross section. They are pale green to yellow-green or red in color and covered in a sticky, oily exudate which has a faintly resinous scent. It grows erect stems with many-branched inflorescences, with each branch bearing up to 10 flowers. Each flower is pink to nearly white with red veining or streaks and protruding stamens between the pointed petals.