Lanceleaf dudleya or lanceleaf liveforever is a fleshy herbaceous perennial growing to 24" high from a short, erect caudex, with a basal rosette of pale green, lanceolate, glaucous leaves that are acute to acuminate-tipped, usually curved upwards, and from 2" to 8" long.  The flowering stems bear smaller scalelike leaves that are alternate and sessile-clasping. These stems are stout and pinkish to reddish.  The flowers are on terminal, slightly coiled clusters on pedicels 1/4" to 3/8" long.  Each flower has a five-cleft calyx made up of deltate-ovate sepals and five pale green elliptic to oblanceolate petals that are waxy, tinged with orange-red, and slightly fused at the base.  Lanceleaf dudleya is very common on dry and rocky slopes to 3500' in coastal sage scrub and chaparral from Santa Barbara and Kern Cos. to northern Baja, and in the desert mountains, blooming from May to July.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Dudleya 2) lanceolata.
Pronunciation: DUD-lee-a lan-see-oh-LAY-ta.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.