Dudleya caespitosa

A solitary rosette growing along the coast near Big Sur.

This plant may grow in solitary rosettes, but most often forms caespitose clumps, which may contain up to 150+ rosettes. The clumps are generally not dense. Each rosette may be anywhere from 8 to 32 cm wide, containing 15 to 30 leaves. The caudex is 1.5 to 4 cm wide, and on older plants is often exposed between dry leaves. The stem is not swollen at the base, unlike D. candelabrum. It has a longer stem compared to D. farinosa due to greater space between the internodes. The leaf shape is extremely variable, although often lance-oblong, or oblong to oblanceolate, with generally acute to sub-acuminate leaf tips. On the edge of the leaf (the margin), there is generally not an angle between the upper and lower leaf surfaces. The leaf dimensions are generally around 5 to 20 cm long, 1 to 2 cm wide, and 3 to 8 cm thick, with the base of the leaf 0.5 to 4 cm wide.[3][5]

Detail of the flowers.

The peduncle is generally 10 to 60 cm tall, and 3.5 to 10 mm wide. There are typically 3 to 5 first degree branches on the inflorescence, which may stay simple or rebranch up to two times. The branches do not twist, and the flowers are on the topside. Each terminal branch is 3 to 15 cm long, and contains 4 to 15 flowers. There are 12 to 25 bracts, spreading to ascending, and shaped triangular ovate to lanceolate. The pedicels are 1 to 6 mm long, erect, and not bent in fruit. The sepals are 2 to 5 mm long, and shaped deltate-ovate, with an acute tip. The petals are 8 to 16 mm long, 3 to 5 mm wide, shaped elliptic, and are connate (fused to form a tubular corolla, as seen in the subgenus Dudleya) 1.5 to 2.5 mm. The petals have an acute apex with erect tips, and are generally colored bright yellow to orange yellow or red.[3][5]

"A very distinct-looking kind, but not one that is handsome" – John Lindley[6]

The plant was first described in 1803 by Adrian Hardy Haworth as Cotyledon caespitosa (the basionym). The original text erroneously cited it as from the Cape of Good Hope.[7] The same species would later be described again as Sedum cotyledon by Joseph Franz von Jacquin and as Cotyledon linguiformis by Brown, both in 1811. In 1849, Lindley described the plant as Echeveria laxa, noting it as a very distinct looking plant, "but not one that is handsome."[6] The plant was described in its current form by Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose in their revision of North American Crassulaceae, which created the genus Dudleya.[7][4]

Dudleya caespitosa is regarded as a member of a highly developed polyploid complex involving numerous neighboring taxa, including Dudleya farinosa, Dudleya greenei, Dudleya palmeri, Dudleya lanceolata, Dudleya cymosa and Dudleya candelabrum. Reid Moran and Charles H. Uhl arbitrarily separated this species on the basis of ploidy and distribution.[4] Dudleya greenei is an insular segregate of Dudleya caespitosa,[8] whilst Dudleya palmeri is on the fringe of the complex with wide leaves and red to orange petals.[9]