''Dudleya edulis'' is a species of

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

succulent plant In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...

known by the common names fingertips, lady fingers, mission lettuce and the San Diego dudleya. The common name denotes the finger-like shape of the leaves, while the

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''edulis'' refers to the use of the young

scapes Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatta ...

as food by the

Kumeyaay The Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai-Ipai or by their historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Unit ...

. It is native to

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...

and northern

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

, and grows on rocky hillsides, cliffs, and bare rock.

Description

''Dudleya edulis'' is made up of an array of fleshy, finger-like leaves growing vertically from a

caudex A caudex (plural: caudices) of a plant is a Plant stem, stem, but the term is also used to mean a rootstock and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.pages 456 and 695 In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, " ...

at or just below ground level. The fingerlike leaves are pale green, cylindrical and pointed, growing up to tall.Jepson Flora Project (ed.)
''Dudleya edulis''
Jepson eFlora The Jepson Herbarium,

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. It bears a branching

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed ...

tall, with several terminal branches each bearing up to 10 or 11 flowers. The flowers have pointed white to cream petals about a centimeter long. The bloom period is May to July. The plant is diploid, with a chromosome number of n=17, which is the base number for ''Dudleya''. File:Fingertips imported from iNaturalist photo 30796256 on 17 November 2021.jpg, Growing in habitat, clumping File:Fingertips imported from iNaturalist photo 17374434 on 17 November 2021.jpg, Growing in habitat at Torrey Pines File:Fingertips imported from iNaturalist photo 30796234 on 17 November 2021.jpg, Close-up of the leaves. File:Dudleyaedulis.jpg, The spreading flowers. File:Dudleya edulis 3.jpg, The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...

ing flowers of ''Dudleya edulis''. Note the 5 ovaries.

Taxonomy

Taxonomic history

Thomas Nuttall Thomas Nuttall (5 January 1786 – 10 September 1859) was an English botanist and zoologist who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1841. Nuttall was born in the village of Long Preston, near Settle in the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

discovered the species during his visit to California in the 1830s. He found it on the edges of "rocks and ravines, St. Diego" and named it ''Sedum edule'', with ''edule'' (meaning "edible") probably referring to the use of the scapes of the plant as food by the indigenous peoples. Despite placing it in the genus ''

Sedum ''Sedum'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Crassulaceae, members of which are commonly known as stonecrops. The genus has been described as containing up to 600 species, subsequently reduced to 400–500. They are leaf succul ...

'', he noted that it was "''a remarkable species apparently allied to Echeveria teretifolia.''" It is unknown why Nuttall chose to place the plant in ''Sedum'', as he had described the other ''

Dudleya ''Dudleya'', commonly known as liveforevers (Spanish: ''siemprevivas'') is a genus of succulent plants in the stonecrop family, Crassulaceae, consisting of about 68 taxa in southwestern North America and Guadalupe Island. The species come in m ...

'' of the region as ''

Echeveria ''Echeveria'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Crassulaceae, native to semi-desert areas of Central America, Mexico and northwestern South America. Description Plants may be evergreen or deciduous. Flowers on short stalks (cym ...

'', but it is speculated that he placed it as a ''Sedum'' because of the spreading petals on the flowers. During their work revising the North American

Crassulaceae The Crassulaceae (from Latin ''crassus'', thick), also known as the stonecrop family or the orpine family, are a diverse family of dicotyledon flowering plants characterized by succulent leaves and a unique form of photosynthesis, known as Cr ...

, taxonomists

Nathaniel Lord Britton Nathaniel Lord Britton (January 15, 1859 – June 25, 1934) was an American botanist and taxonomist who co-founded the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, New York. Early life Britton was born in New Dorp in Staten Island, New York to Jasper ...

and

Joseph Nelson Rose Joseph Nelson Rose (January 11, 1862 – May 4, 1928) was an American botanist. He was born in Union County, Indiana. His father died serving during the Civil War when Joseph Rose was a young boy. He later graduated from high school in Liberty ...

placed the plant in the new genus ''Stylophyllum'', which was differentiated from their new genus ''Dudleya'' on the basis of round leaves and spreading petals. With

Reid Moran Reid Venable Moran (June 30, 1916 – January 21, 2010) was an American botanist and the curator of botany at the San Diego Natural History Museum from 1957 to 1982. Moran was the world authority on the Crassulaceae, a family of succulent plant ...

's revision of ''Dudleya'', the plants within ''Stylophyllum'' were moved, as ''Stylophyllum'' was merged into a subgenera of ''Dudleya''. Willis L. Jepson once regarded the nearby ''

Dudleya attenuata ''Dudleya attenuata'' is a species of perennial succulent plant known by the common name taper-tip liveforever, native to Baja California and a small portion of California. A rosette-forming leaf succulent, it has narrow pencil shaped leaves ...

'' as a subspecies of this plant, owing to their similar morphology, although they are very distinct. They can be distinguished by the fact that ''D. attenuata'' is a smaller plant, with slender and elongated stems, and fewer smaller leaves that are glaucous and clavate to some degree. The leaf bases are also higher, and the inflorescence is simpler with more remote flowers. It is known to naturally hybridize with ''

Dudleya stolonifera ''Dudleya stolonifera'' is a succulent plant known by the common name Laguna Beach liveforever or Laguna Beach dudleya. This is a rare plant which is endemic to the coastline of Orange County, California. It is known from only about six populat ...

, D. attenuata'', ''D. brevifolia'', ''D. formosa'' and '' D. blochmaniae'' where their ranges overlap. Most of these hybrids are uncommon, and the plants hybridizing with ''stolonifera'' may be backcrosses.

Distribution and habitat

The plant is endemic to

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterrane ...

habitats, and is native to southwestern

and slightly into northwestern

.Calflora: ''Dudleya edulis''
/ref> It is found north from coastal Orange County and southern Riverside County, south throughout San Diego County into the Rio San Vicente drainage of Baja California, a habitat that spans over 190 miles (305 km), from the Pacific coast east towards the southwest flank of

Cuyamaca Peak Cuyamaca Peak is a mountain peak of the Cuyamaca Mountains range, in San Diego County, Southern California. Geography At , its summit is the second highest point in San Diego County. Cuyamaca Peak is located roughly from the Pacific Ocean, wi ...

, around 40 miles inland and up to elevations of 1,300 meters. In its southern distribution, the plant can be found more on north-facing slopes and cliffs. It grows in rocky slopes and soil, and on

rock outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficial ...

s and ledges, from sea level to below in elevation. It is found in

coastal sage scrub Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is ...

and chaparral and woodlands

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

Cultivation

''Dudleya edulis'' is cultivated as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that ...

, planted in

native plant In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as "with no human intervention") during history. The term is equ ...

and

wildlife garden A wildlife garden (or wild garden) is an environment created by a gardener that serves as a sustainable haven for surrounding wildlife. Wildlife gardens contain a variety of habitats that cater to native and local plants, birds, amphibians ...

drought tolerant Drought tolerance is the ability to which a plant maintains its biomass production during arid or drought conditions. Some plants are naturally adapted to dry conditions'','' surviving with protection mechanisms such as desiccation tolerance, det ...

rock garden A rock garden, also known as a rockery and formerly as a rockwork, is a garden, or more often a part of a garden, with a landscaping framework of rocks, stones, and gravel, with planting appropriate to this setting. Usually these are small ...

s, and as specimens in pots.Las Pilitas Nursery Horticulture Database: ''Dudleya edulis (Fingertips, Lady Fingers, San Diego Dudleya)
/ref> Thomas Nuttall noted the use of the plant as a food source by the indigenous occupants of the land, which gives the plant its specific epithet. The native peoples would harvest the young tender leaves in spring, and eat them raw. The Tiipai members of the Kumeyaay had a specific name for the narrow-leaved ''Dudleya'' like this plant, calling them ''milh kajmila''.Wilken, Michael A. (2012) ''An Ethnobotany of Baja California's Kumeyaay Indians.'' Retrieved 10 November 2021

References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Dudleya edulis'' (Fingertips)Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment of ''Dudleya edulis''UC CalPhotos gallery of ''Dudleya edulis''USDA Plants Profile for ''Dudleya edulis'' (fingertips)
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5312055

edulis Edulis, edible in Latin, is a species name present in a number of Latin species names: * '' Acioa edulis'', the Castanha-de-cutia, a fruit and timber tree species * '' Aglaia edulis'', a plant species found in Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indon ...

Flora of California Flora of Baja California Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the Peninsular Ranges Natural history of San Diego County, California ~ ~ Taxa named by Reid Venable Moran Garden plants of North America Drought-tolerant plants Taxa named by Thomas Nuttall Flora without expected TNC conservation status