Dudleya lanceolata
Dudleya parva
lance-leaf dudleya, lanceleaf liveforever, Southern California dudleya
Conejo dudleya, Conejo or Diablo Range dudleya
simple or apically branched and cespitose, 1–5 × 1–3 cm, axillary branches absent.
often branching apically, 3–5 × 0.1–0.7 cm, (from root ca. 3 mm thick but strongly constricted irregularly), 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.
withering in early summer;
rosettes 1–3, (in clumps), 5–10-leaved, 1–3 cm diam.;
blade green, becoming purplish, linear to oblanceolate, 1.5–5 × 0.3–0.7 cm, 1.5–2 mm thick, base 0.5–1.1 cm wide, apex acute, subapiculate, surfaces not farinose, slightly 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.
cymes 2–3-branched, obpyramidal;
branches not twisted (flowers on topside), simple or 1 times bifurcate, (3–5 cm wide);
cincinni mostly 1–2, (simple), 5–12-flowered, not circinate, 3–8 cm;
floral shoots 5–18 × 0.1–0.2 cm;
leaves 10–20, ascending, triangular-ovate, 5–15 × 3–6 mm, apex acute.
erect, not bent in fruit, 2–6(–12) mm.
erect, not bent in fruit, (stout), 1–3 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 3–5 × 3–5 mm;
petals connate 1–2 mm, pale yellow, sometimes red-lineolate, 8–12 × 2–3.5 mm, apex broadly acute, tips slightly outcurved;
pistils connivent, erect.
follicles erect.
follicles erect.
= 68.
= 34.
Dudleya lanceolata
Dudleya parva
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 parva is known only from Ventura County; it is considered fairly threatened (California Native Plant Society, http://cnps.web.aplus.net/cgi-bin/inv/inventory.cgi). Plants reported as D. parva from San Luis Obispo County (R. F. Hoover 1965, 1970) appear to be a small form of D. abramsii subsp. bettinae.
Dudleya parva is distinguished by its small size and its fugacious rosette leaves. Mature plants look like seedlings flowering precociously. They are leafless in summer and fall, like D. cymosa subsp. marcescens and like members of subg. Hasseanthus. Flower structure, and particularly the insertion of the stamens, indicates that it is related to D. abramsii. The epipetalous filaments of D. parva are 4–9.5 mm and adnate 1–1.5 mm, the antisepalous ones are 5–10 mm, adnate 1.5–2 mm. Dudleya abramsii is a larger plant, with persistent rosettes of more numerous and usually larger leaves, with longer and more slender pedicels, and usually with a longer corolla tube.
Dudleya parva is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants as D. abramsii subsp. parva.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
