Dudleya lanceolata
Dudleya variegata
lance-leaf dudleya, lanceleaf liveforever, Southern California dudleya
variegated dudleya, variegated 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.
4–12;
petiole 0.5–3 mm wide, to 1/3 as wide as blade;
blade blue-green or yellow-green, oblanceolate to spatulate, 1–7 cm × 3–11 mm, 1.5–4 mm thick, base 1–6 mm wide, apex acute to rounded, surfaces not 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 2–11-flowered, 2–15 cm;
floral shoots 5–20 cm × 0.5–2 mm at base, to 3 mm wide at middle;
leaves 10–26, ascending, blade triangular-ovate to -lanceolate, 0.5–3 cm × 3–10 mm, 2–5 mm thick, apex acute to obtuse.
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.
mostly odorless;
petals connate 0.5–1 mm, spreading from near middle, bright yellow (fading whitish), often red-lineolate on keel, elliptic, 5–8 × 2–3.5 mm, apex acute, corolla ca. 8–15 mm diam.;
pistils separate, suberect;
ovary 2.5–5 mm;
styles 1.5–2 mm.
follicles erect.
subglobose to oblong, 1–3 cm × 3–15 mm.
widespreading, with adaxial margins nearly horizontal.
= 68.
= 34.
Dudleya lanceolata
Dudleya variegata
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 variegata is endemic to an area some 80 kilometers long, from near San Diego into northwest Baja California, much of it urban; it is considered fairly threatened in California (California Native Plant Society, http://cnps.web.aplus.net/cgi-bin/inv/inventory.cgi). In Baja California, it hybridizes with D. attenuata subsp. attenuata (R. V. Moran 1951).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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