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| Category: Succulent |
| Family: Crassulaceae (Stonecrops) |
| Origin: Baja California (North America) |
| California Native (Plant List): Yes |
| Evergreen: Yes |
| Flower Color: Greenish White |
| Bloomtime: Spring/Summer |
| Height: 1-2 feet |
| Width: 1-2 feet |
| Exposure: Sun or Shade |
| Irrigation (H2O Info): Low Water Needs |
| Winter Hardiness: 10-15° F |
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Dudleya pachyphytum (Cedros Island Liveforever) A ground-hugging slowly-clumping succulent to 1 foot tall by 2 feet wide with a thick basal stem from which form many branches bearing 5 to 10 inch wide rosettes of interesting leaves that are unlike all other Dudleya. These leaves are very thick, somewhat blunt at the tips and rounded on the edges and have a beautiful white waxy coating. In mid-summer appears the long inflorescence, slightly pink at the base but otherwise covered with the same white coating as the leaves and bearing tight cymes of pale green to whitish flowers. These flowers barely open but are decorated with the same white waxy coating as with the inflorescence stems and leaves. Plant in a very well-drained soil in full sun to bright light - give some protection in inland hot sun. It grows well with winter and spring rains and, unlike many others in the genus, will respond well to regular to occasional irrigation in summer months. Hardy to at least 18 F (as it withstood this in our collection in 1990). This is a great plant for the rock garden, a crack in a rock or wall or as a container specimen. The name Dudleya is named for William R. Dudley (1849-1911), a botanist at Stanford University. The specific epithet "pachyphytum" was given to this plant when Reid Moran and Michael Benedict described it in May 1981 in the Cactus and Succulent Society of America Journal. It is an interesting specific name as it is the same name used for the genus of related plants from Mexico which gets its meaning from the Latin words 'pachy' meaning "thick" or "massive" and 'phytum' meaning "plant" which is a fitting name. The plants do somewhat resemble those of various species of Pachyphytum but, according to the authors, it was only meant to describe the plant and not actually a reference to this other genus. Dudleya pachyphytum grows on steep rocky areas on north facing cliffs above 2,000 feet on the frequently foggy north western slopes of Cedros Island, located in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California. This species was discovered only fairly recently because of the relative isolation of Cedros Island itself and because this northern area is a more inaccessible part of the island. Michael Benedict from the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden was the first to document finding this plant in 1971 but the plant he found was one that that had washed down the main northern canyon, Canada de la Mina. He returned in 1975 and 1977 to find plants along cliffs to the north and west of this canyon. In 1977 Alfred Lau and Antonio Garcia also discovered many plants of this species growing at the top of the ridge above of the Canada de la Mina and this discovery with excellent photographs of the plant were published in the Cactus and Succulent Society of America Journal in September 1980, before Moran and Benedict described it. Unfortunately groups visiting Cedros Island have removed a large number of this species from their natural habitat. We find this news very depressing and urge visitors to any natural habitat not to dig plants from the wild. All of our crops of this plant are seed grown plants from seed that we collect ourselves off original stock plants that came from Dylan Hannon in 2008. Dylan grew his plants from seed collected in 1978 by Mitch Beauchamp, before it was first officially described in 1981. Plants grown from this same Mitch Beauchamp seed source were also distributed by the Huntington Botanic Garden's International Succulent Institute in 1998 as Dudleya pachyphytum ISI 98-40.
This information about Dudleya pachyphytum displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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