Dudleya lanceolata
Dudleya viscida
lance-leaf dudleya, lanceleaf liveforever, Southern California dudleya
sticky dudleya, sticky liveforever
simple or apically branched and cespitose, 1–5 × 1–3 cm, axillary branches absent.
to 5 dm × 1–4 cm, clumps to 5+ dm diam.
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.
with resinous odor;
rosette 15–50-leaved, 10–20 cm diam.;
blade light to dark or yellowish green, linear-deltate, tapering from base, convex or obtusely angled abaxially, laminar and flat or convex adaxially, often terete near apex, 6–15 × 0.5–1.5 cm, 2–5 mm thick, 2–6 times wider than thick, base 1–2 cm wide, surfaces not farinose, viscid, appearing oily.
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 3–15-branched, flat to cylindric, (to 3 × 1.5 dm);
branches (close set), 1–2 times bifurcate;
cincinni 3–11-flowered, scarcely circinate, 2–7 cm;
floral shoots 2–7 dm × 2–10 mm;
leaves 20–40, ascending, triangular-lanceolate, 1–6 × 0.3–0.5 cm.
erect, not bent in fruit, 2–6(–12) mm.
1–4 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.
petals widespreading from middle or slightly reflexed, connate 1–2 mm, white to pink, elliptic, 6–10 × 2.5–3.5 mm, apex acute, corolla 12–22 mm diam.;
pistils suberect or ascending, (pink, slender), 6–10 mm;
styles 2.4–4 mm.
follicles erect.
ascending, with adaxial margins ca. 45–60º above horizontal.
= 68.
= 34.
Dudleya lanceolata
Dudleya viscida
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 viscida is known from only five or six areas on the mainland, in Orange and San Diego counties, some affected by development and road construction; it is considered fairly threatened (California Native Plant Society, http://cnps.web.aplus.net/cgi-bin/inv/inventory.cgi). It is abundant where it grows; in San Juan Canyon, Orange County, for example, it can be seen from the highway, off and on, for some six kilometers, from 190 to 350 meters, with a total of thousands of plants. Reproduction is vigorous, and old roadcuts are heavily colonized. It is a local plant but hardly a rare one.
Dudleya viscida differs conspicuously from all other species of the genus in its strongly viscid and fragrant herbage. The sticky exudate seems to come from the epidermal cells generally, in which the cytoplasm looks much denser than in subepidermal cells and in epidermal cells of nonviscid Crassulaceae. R. L. Rodriguez C. (pers. comm.) said that this exudate appeared to be a soft resin or oleoresin with a terpene solvent. Among other species, only D. anomala of Baja California is even slightly viscid and odorous; it is a polyploid that very likely is derived in part from D. viscida.
According to P. H. Thomson (1993), Dudleya viscida hybridizes in nature with D. edulis and with D. pulverulenta. It is an attractive plant that does well in cultivation.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
