San Francisco Bay area succulents

[cjbaker]

I saw these lovely succulents on a recent hike, and was wondering if anyone could tell me the species so I could read more about them. I assume they are Echeveria or one of those look-alikes. Thank you!


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[Rosemarie]

These are Dudleya. Can't say I've seen any that look the plants in the last pic (with rounder leaves).

Have a look at these pix ~maybe you can narrow down which yours might be by the area (SF Bay area):
http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species ... us=Dudleya

[cjbaker]

That's good to know, thank you for sharing that resource. You're always sharing such great knowledge of this family. Looks like I'll probably have to go back and visit them again some day while they're flowering for a species ID.

I just read here that the ranges of Dudleya and Echeveria do not have much overlap, and it sounds like no Echeveria are found in the SF Bay area. Is this the easiest way of telling them apart, or is there some visual clue that sets apart Echeveria from Dudleya?

[iann]

I don't think there are any native Echeverias in California, although Dudleyas have been called Echeveria in the past. Most Echeverias are not white, and most Dudleyas are at least somewhat white unless they are thoroughly washed clean.

The real way to tell them apart is by the flower stems. Look on this thread where I mis-identified an Echeveria. Then look at these actual Dudleya flower stalks:

dudleya-0408.jpg (83.46 KiB) Viewed 1544 times

The flowers themselves are similar, but the stalks are highly branched with the flowers standing up instead of an unbranched gracefully curving stem.

[cjbaker]

I see, thank you Ian. The flower stems do indeed look very different. I've seen the graceful curved ones on my own Echeverias at home, but have never seen the branched ones on those Dudleya.

[Saxicola]

There are no echeverias native to the US, and there is virtually no overlap of the genera in Mexico where they are both native. Basically, if you see a plant anything like an Echeveria growing native along the Pacific Coast from Southern Oregon through Baja, it is a Dudleya. A lot of species have a glaucous coating but I wouldn't say most do. Maybe 50/50. It is just that the ones that make it into cultivation tend to be glaucous and big because that's what people like.

The technical differences between the two are minor differences in the flowers. But one major cultivation difference is Dudleya are winter growers and Echeveria grow primarily in the summer.