''Dudleya lanceolata'' is a

succulent plant In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...

known by the common name lanceleaf liveforever or lance-leaved dudleya. It is an extremely variable and widely ranging species that occurs from

Monterey County Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is Salinas. Montere ...

and

Kern County Kern County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield. Kern County comprises the Bakersfield, California, Metropolitan statistical area. The county sp ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

south through Ensenada in

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

. It is characterized by green to purple lanceolate leaves, red, orange, or less commonly yellow petals, and is typically

tetraploid Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than one pair of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei (eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes, where each set contains ...

. Despite its diversity, it is quite stable as a species, but hybrids may be discovered with other species of ''

Dudleya ''Dudleya'', commonly known as liveforevers (Spanish: ''siemprevivas'') is a genus of succulent plants in the stonecrop family, Crassulaceae, consisting of about 68 taxa in southwestern North America and Guadalupe Island. The species come in mul ...

'', which can make it difficult to discern in areas where numerous species converge.

Description

Vegetative morphology

This plant is a rosette-forming succulent. The rosettes emerge from the apex of the

caudex A caudex (plural: caudices) of a plant is a stem, but the term is also used to mean a rootstock and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.pages 456 and 695 In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, "caudex" is m ...

, which may be solitary or apically branched, with anywhere from 1 to 7 rosettes on top. The caudex is 1 to 3 cm wide, less than 4 cm long, but is occasionally elongated. The rosettes are 3 to 25 cm in diameter, and typically with 10 to 25

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

. The leaves are green and sometimes

glaucous ''Glaucous'' (, ) is used to describe the pale grey or bluish-green appearance of the surfaces of some plants, as well as in the names of birds, such as the glaucous gull (''Larus hyperboreus''), glaucous-winged gull (''Larus glaucescens''), g ...

, but not farinose, shaped oblong to lanceolate, 4 to 30 cm long by 0.5 to 4 cm wide, and 1.5 to 6 mm thick. The tip of the leaf is acute. Lanceleaf liveforever imported from iNaturalist photo 42758426 on 20 December 2021

Lanceleaf liveforever imported from iNaturalist photo 42758426 on 20 December 2021

Reproductive morphology

The peduncle is 15 to 95 cm tall, and is 3 to 12 mm wide. The lower

internodes A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant, the other being the root. It supports leaves, flowers and fruits, transports water and dissolved substances between the roots and the shoots in the xylem and phloem, stores nutrien ...

are spaced over 5 mm from each other. There are 18 to 40

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s, spreading to ascending, and shaped triangular-lanceolate to ovate. The cyme is branched 2 to 3 times, and the next branches may bifurcate. The terminal branches are 2 to 25 cm long, and have 2 to 20 flowers on spreading

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

. The pedicels are 2 to 12 mm long, becoming erect, and are red or green, and not generally pink. The

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s are 3 to 6 mm large, shaped deltate-ovate. The

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s are 10 to 16 mm long, 3.5 to 5 mm wide, shaped elliptic to oblanceolate and fused connately 1 to 2 mm. The petals are usually red or orange, and more uncommonly bright yellow to purplish-red, and very rarely green. File:Lanceleaf liveforever imported from iNaturalist photo 3845685 on 27 December 2021.jpg, Yellow flowers with green sepals File:J20161009-0014—Dudleya lanceolata (30221987695).jpg, Red flowers with pink sepals File:DUDLEYA (dudleya lanceolata) (6-15-09) cerro alto rd -01 (3629622551).jpg, Orange-red flowers with gray and glaucous sepals File:Bombus vosnesenkii.jpg, Orange-yellow flowers with a Yellow-Faced Bumble Bee (''

Bombus vosnesenskii ''Bombus vosnesenskii'', the yellow-faced bumblebee, is a species of bumblebee native to the west coast of North America, where it is distributed from British Columbia to Baja California. It is the most abundant species of bee in this range, and ...

'') pollinator File:Dudleya lanceolata 124740788.jpg, Yellow flowers, gray sepals, and a pink peduncle. Note the circinate terminal branches with budding flowers File:Dudleya lanceolata flower interior.jpg, Inflorescence with developing buds, showing detail of interior of a single open flower, Davies Alpine House,

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

The chromosome number is typically tetraploid, 2''n'' = 68 / ''n'' = 34, but some plants are occasionally octoploid. Diploid plants in montane regions are in fact ''Dudleya cymosa''. Flowering is from April to July.

Distribution and habitat

This plant is widely distributed, occurring from

and

in the state of

, through coastal

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

and into

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, where it reaches its southern distribution near Ensenada in

, at the Punta Banda. It is also found on the

Coronado Islands The Coronado Islands (''Islas Coronado'' or ''Islas Coronados''; en, Islands of the Coronation(s); Kumeyaay: Mat hasil ewik kakap) are a group of islands located off the northwest coast of the Mexican state of Baja California. Battered by the w ...

. It is not particularly hardy to the cold, and is typically found where humidity is not too low, by the coast and in north-facing inland locations.

Cultivation

''Dudleya lanceolata'' is cultivated as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

by specialty nurseries, for use in

rock garden A rock garden, also known as a rockery and formerly as a rockwork, is a garden, or more often a part of a garden, with a landscaping framework of rocks, stones, and gravel, with planting appropriate to this setting. Usually these are small A ...

s, as a potted plant, and a

native plant In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as "with no human intervention") during history. The term is equ ...

natural landscaping Natural landscaping, also called native gardening, is the use of native plants and adapted species, including trees, shrubs, groundcover, and grasses which are local to the geographic area of the garden. Benefits Maintenance Natural landsc ...

.Las Pilitas horticultural treatment: ''Dudleya lanceolata''
. accessed 2.2.2013

References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Dudleya lanceolata'' (lanceleaf liveforever, Southern California dudleya)

USDA Plants Profile: ''Dudleya lanceolata'' (lanceleaf liveforever)

UC Photos gallery — ''Dudleya lanceolata''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5312059 lanceolata Flora of California Flora of Baja California Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Natural history of the Peninsular Ranges Natural history of the Santa Monica Mountains Natural history of the Transverse Ranges Garden plants of North America Drought-tolerant plants Taxa named by Thomas Nuttall Taxa named by Joseph Nelson Rose Taxa named by Nathaniel Lord Britton