Dudleya blochmaniae
Dudleya arizonica
Blochman's dudleya, Blochman's liveforever
Arizona chalk dudleya, Arizona dudleya
simple, 1–15 × 1–4 cm, axillary branches absent.
3–50;
petiole 0.3–1.5 mm wide, to 1/3 as wide as blade;
blade green, oblanceolate or clavate-oblanceolate, 1–6 cm × 2–8 mm, 1–4 mm thick, base 1–4 mm wide, apex subacute to rounded, surfaces sometimes ± glaucous.
rosettes solitary, not in clumps, 10–35-leaved, 5–30(–60) cm diam.;
blade ± chalky white, in age often red, oblong to oblong-obovate, 3–17[–30] × 1–7 cm, 2–4 mm thick, base 1–3.5 cm wide, apex acute or usually long-acuminate, surfaces not farinose, chalky.
cincinni 3–10-flowered, 1–6 cm;
floral shoots 3–12 cm × 0.5–2 mm;
leaves 8–25, ascending, blade triangular-ovate to -lanceolate, 0.5–2.5 cm × 3–10 mm, 2–4 mm thick, apex rounded to subacute or obtuse.
cyme 3–6-branched, cylindric;
branches (mostly ascending), twisted at base (flowers on underside), simple, (3–7 cm wide);
cincinni 2–5, 4–20-flowered, circinate, 4–27 cm;
floral shoots 15–60 × 0.2–0.6 cm;
leaves 5–25, spreading, cordate-ovate to almost deltate, 10–35 × 5–25 mm, apex acute to acuminate.
mostly erect or ascending from bud to fruit, rarely spreading to pendent, in fruit often bent upward near or above middle, 5–20 mm.
with musky, sweet odor;
petals connate to 1 mm, widely spreading from near middle, white, ± yellowish green at base, red-lineolate on keel, drying purplish, elliptic, 6–10[–12] × 2–3.5[–5] mm, apex acute, corolla 8–20 mm diam.;
pistils separate, ascending;
ovary 3–4.5 mm;
styles 1–1.5 mm.
calyx 4–7 × 4–7 mm;
petals connate 4.5–8 mm, red to apricot yellow, 9–15 × 1.5–2 mm, apex obtuse to sharply acute, tips outcurved;
pistils connivent, erect.
subglobose to oblong, 0.7–3.5 cm × 5–20 mm.
widespreading, with adaxial margins nearly horizontal.
follicles erect.
= 34.
Dudleya blochmaniae
Dudleya arizonica
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
The diploid Dudleya arizonica is closest to the diploid D. pulverulenta, looking like a reduced desert form, smaller in most parts, or sometimes like a seedling. Northward, the ranges are well separated, and southward in Baja California, where both are more sporadic, the ranges and the plants seem mainly distinct. Southward, D. pulverulenta makes large plants like those in the far northern part of its range, whereas southward D. arizonica generally is smaller and less like D. pulverulenta and more like just any old dudleya. In eastern San Diego County, California, the two intergrade and it is hard to draw a line between them. In coastal San Diego County, California, the type region, plants of D. pulverulenta are generally smaller and less extreme than those to the north and south and a little more like D. arizonica. For these reasons, I formerly treated D. arizonica as a subspecies (R. V. Moran 1943b), and something may still be said for that treatment. Because they are generally quite different through much of their broad ranges, it seems better to treat them as different species.
The inflorescence of Dudleya pulverulenta and D. anthonyi Rose is approached in some plants of D. arizonica. The mostly ascending branches are sometimes twisted at the base, putting the flowers on the abaxial side, the flowers are sometimes spreading or even pendent, and the fruiting pedicels commonly are more or less bent upward. Because the leaves are fewer and, with the thinner caudex, narrow at the base, seedlings of D. pulverulenta may closely resemble adult plants of D. arizonica.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Rosette leaves 3-12, blade oblanceolate, 1-4(-6) cm; inflorescence leaves not or slightly glaucous. | subsp. blochmaniae |
1. Rosette leaves 15-30(-50), blade clavate-oblanceolate, 1-3.5 cm; inflorescence leaves gray-glaucous. | subsp. insularis |
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
