Dudleya lanceolata
Dudleya arizonica
lance-leaf dudleya, lanceleaf liveforever, Southern California dudleya
Arizona chalk dudleya, Arizona dudleya
simple or apically branched and cespitose, 1–5 × 1–3 cm, axillary branches absent.
simple, 1–15 × 1–4 cm, axillary branches absent.
rosettes 1–7, not in clumps, 10–25(–30)-leaved, 3–25 cm diam.;
blade green, oblong-lanceolate, 4–30 × 0.5–4 cm, 1.5–6 mm thick, base 1–3 cm wide, apex acute to acuminate, surfaces not farinose, 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.
cyme mostly 2–3-branched, obpyramidal;
branches not twisted (flowers on topside), simple or 1-times bifurcate, (5–16 cm diam.);
cincinni 2–3, 2–20-flowered, circinate, 2–15(–25) cm;
floral shoots 15–90(–120) × 0.3–1.2 cm;
leaves 18–40, spreading to ascending, triangular-lanceolate to -ovate, 10–30(–50) × 3–18 mm, apex acute, in age straight and erect to spreading.
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.
erect, not bent in fruit, 2–6(–12) mm.
mostly erect or ascending from bud to fruit, rarely spreading to pendent, in fruit often bent upward near or above middle, 5–20 mm.
calyx 4–7 × 5–8 mm;
petals connate 1–2 mm, bright yellow or usually red or red-flushed or -marked abaxially, greenish to orange-yellow adaxially, 10–16 × 2.5–5 mm, apex acute, tips slightly outcurved;
pistils connivent, erect.
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.
follicles erect.
follicles erect.
= 68.
= 34.
Dudleya lanceolata
Dudleya arizonica
Dudleya lanceolata is wide-ranging, from Monterey and western Kern counties southward through San Diego County, variable, and ill-defined. It varies locally in size of parts and in flower color but does not seem easily divisible into smaller units. N. L. Britton and J. N. Rose (1903, 1905) proposed seven additional species of southern California or of unstated origin that seem best included here. On the basis of 18 or more well-scattered collections, it is tetraploid; it seems best defined partly on that basis. Similar plants from Aliso Canyon, Orange County, are octoploid (C. H. Uhl and R. V. Moran 1953, as D. sp. aff. D. lanceolata); this is one of several scattered coastal populations with the caudex elongate. Another is D. elongata Rose, from near San Pedro, of which later collections are tetraploid.
(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.)
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