Dudleya lanceolata
Dudleya lanceolata is a succulent plant 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 and Kern County in California south through Ensenada, [Baja California|Ensenada] in Baja California. It is characterized by green to purple lanceolate leaves, red, orange, or less commonly yellow petals, and is typically tetraploid. Despite its diversity, it is quite stable as a species, but hybrids may be discovered with other species of Dudleya, 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, 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. The leaves are green and sometimes glaucous, 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.Reproductive morphology
The peduncle is 15 to 95 cm tall, and is 3 to 12 mm wide. The lower internodes are spaced over 5 mm from each other. There are 18 to 40 bracts, 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. The pedicels are 2 to 12 mm long, becoming erect, and are red or green, and not generally pink. The sepals are 3 to 6 mm large, shaped deltate-ovate. The petals 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.The chromosome number is typically tetraploid, 2n = 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.