Dudleya lanceolata
Dudleya cespitosa
lance-leaf dudleya, lanceleaf liveforever, Southern California dudleya
coast dudleya, sand-lettuce
simple or apically branched and cespitose, 1–5 × 1–3 cm, axillary branches absent.
branched apically loosely or cespitosely, to 30 × 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 3–150+, in clumps, 15–30(–50)-leaved, 5–20(–30) cm diam.;
blade green, oblong to oblong-oblanceolate, 5–20 × 0.5–4 cm, 3–8 mm thick, base 0.5–4 cm wide, apex acute to subacuminate, surfaces not farinose, sometimes glaucous.
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 ca. 3-branched, mostly obpyramidal;
branches not twisted (flowers on topside), simple or 1–2 times bifurcate, (3–6 cm diam.);
cincinni 3–5, 3–14-flowered, circinate, 3–11 cm;
floral shoots 10–40 × 0.4–1.2 cm;
leaves 12–25, spreading to ascending, triangular-ovate to lanceolate, 10–60 × 10–30 mm, apex acute.
erect, not bent in fruit, 2–6(–12) mm.
erect, not bent in fruit, mostly 1–5 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 4–6 × 4–8 mm;
petals connate 1.5–2.5 mm, mostly bright yellow to red, 8–16 × 2.5–5 mm, apex acute, tips erect;
pistils connivent, erect.
follicles erect.
follicles erect.
= 68.
= 68, 101, 136.
Dudleya lanceolata
Dudleya cespitosa
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.)
As circumscribed here, Dudleya cespitosa is a highly variable polyploid complex delimited from neighboring species and not easily divisible on the basis of morphology, distribution, and chromosome number into practical subspecific units.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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