Dudleya lanceolata
Dudleya multicaulis
lance-leaf dudleya, lanceleaf liveforever, Southern California dudleya
many-stem dudleya, manystem liveforever
simple or apically branched and cespitose, 1–5 × 1–3 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.
5–15, base scarcely narrowed into petiole;
blade green, linear, 5–15 cm × 2–6 mm, 2–6 mm thick, base 4–10 mm wide, apex narrowly acute, surfaces not or somewhat 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.
cincinni 3–15-flowered, 2–10 cm;
floral shoots 5–35 cm × 2–4 mm;
leaves 7–18, strongly ascending, blade linear (similar to rosette leaf blades), 1–10 cm × 2–10 mm, 2–6 mm thick, apex narrowly acute.
erect, not bent in fruit, 2–6(–12) 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.
odorless;
petals connate 1–2 mm, spreading from near middle, bright yellow (fading pale yellow), often red-lineolate along keel, elliptic-lanceolate, 5–9 × 2–3 mm, apex acute, corolla 12–18 mm diam.;
pistils connate 1–2 mm, ascending;
ovary 3.5–6 mm;
styles 1.5–2 mm.
follicles erect.
oblong, 1.5–5 cm × 3–18 mm.
widespreading, with adaxial margins nearly horizontal.
= 68.
= 34.
Dudleya lanceolata
Dudleya multicaulis
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.)
Of conservation concern.
Dudleya multicaulis is endemic to the Los Angeles coastal plain and adjacent hills, Transverse and Peninsular ranges, and southward to the San Onofre Mountains of northern San Diego County, an area now largely urban; it is considered fairly endangered (California Native Plant Society, http://cnps.web.aplus.net/cgi-bin/inv/inventory.cgi).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
