Candleholder dudleya

Caudices simple, 0.1-20 × 2-8 cm, axillary branches absent. Leaves: rosettes solitary, not in clumps, 20-45-leaved, 10-30 cm diam.; blade green or, rarely, pale greenish white, obovate to oblong-oblanceolate, 6-17 × 3-7 cm, 1-4 mm thick, base 0.2-0.5 cm wide, apex acuminate, surfaces usually not farinose, not glaucous. Inflorescences: cyme 3-5-branched, densely rounded or becoming flat-topped; branches not twisted (flowers on topside), 1-2 times bifurcate, (5-25 cm diam.); cincinni ca. 3, 5-25-flowered, circinate, 2.5-13 cm; floral shoots 15-35 × 0.6-1 cm; leaves 20-35, spreading or deflexed, triangular-lanceolate, 30-70 × 10-20 mm, apex acute. Pedicels erect, not bent in fruit, 2-6 mm. Flowers: calyx 6-9 × 4-5 mm; petals connate 1.5-3.5 mm, pale yellow to white, 8-12 × 2.5-3.5 mm, apex acute, tips straight; pistils connivent, erect. Unripe follicles erect. 2n = 34.

Flowering late spring-early summer. Scattered in rocky places, especially north- and east-facing canyon walls; of conservation concern; 0-600 m; Calif.

Dudleya candelabrum is endemic to Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands; it is considered fairly threatened (California Native Plant Society, http://cnps.web.aplus.net/cgi-bin/inv/inventory.cgi). Among diploids, it seems most similar to the green phase of D. brittonii D. A. Johansen, of coastal northwestern Baja California, which also has a thick, unbranched caudex and large rosettes, and has somewhat similar leaf shape, inflorescence, and flowers. However, D. brittonii has more rosette leaves, which may be farinose or not, longer pedicels that are thickened distally, and conspicuously narrower sepals, with broad U-shaped sinuses.