Dudleya densiflora (Rose) Moran
San Gabriel Mountains dudleya, San Gabriel Mountains liveforever, San Gabriel Mountains liveforever
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Dudleya densiflora is a species of succulent plant in the family Crassulaceae known commonly as the San Gabriel Mountains liveforever or San Gabriel Mountains dudleya. A very rare plant confined to the San Gabriel Mountains of Los Angeles County, California, it is known only from three to five spots in the mountain range, with an estimated 1,700 individual plants remaining. Growing in the cracks of the granite slopes of three canyons in this single mountain range, it is threatened by human activity such as rock quarrying and off-trail recreation.
Text from Wikipedia, “Dudleya densiflora”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Dudleya
Dudleya, commonly known as liveforevers, is a genus of rosette-forming succulent plants in the stonecrop family, Crassulaceae, consisting of about ~70 taxa found in southwestern North America and Guadalupe Island. The genus is very morphologically diverse, with species ranging from large evergreen plants to tiny deciduous geophytic plants. The flowers of Dudleya have parts numbered in fives, with the petals arranged in tubular, star-shaped, or bell-shaped forms and, when fruiting, are filled with tiny, crescent-shaped seeds.
Text from Wikipedia, “Dudleya”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Cotyledon densiflora (Rose) Fedde; Cotyledon densiflora (Rose) Jeps.; Cotyledon nudicaule Abrams; Cotyledon nudicaulis Abrams; Dudleya nudicaulis (Abrams) Moran and 4 more.
Cultivation
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Dudleya, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.
Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March in the northern hemisphere (December to March at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (402 mm of 556 mm) falls in December to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 12.1 °C against a yearly mean of 17.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to September.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 556 mm a year, wettest February at 116 mm, driest July at 2 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
556 mm a year at the habitat, 402 mm of it December to March. Wettest month February at 116 mm, driest July at 2 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 308 mm to 609 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 52 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 52 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor 1.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 1.2 °C, the absolute minimum -3.5 °C, about 1 frost night a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells 5.0 °C to 8.0 °C), warmest day 31.8 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 52 to 58% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 17 / 15–18 | 17 / 16–18 | 19 / 18–20 | 22 / 20–23 | 25 / 22–26 | 28 / 24–30 | 31 / 27–32 | 32 / 28–33 | 30 / 27–31 | 25 / 24–26 | 20 / 19–21 | 17 / 15–18 |
| Night °C | 7 / 5–8 | 7 / 6–9 | 8 / 7–10 | 10 / 9–11 | 12 / 12–13 | 15 / 14–15 | 18 / 17–18 | 18 / 17–19 | 17 / 16–18 | 14 / 12–15 | 10 / 8–11 | 7 / 5–8 |
| Rain mm | 107 / 61–118 | 116 / 72–133 | 82 / 49–88 | 41 / 22–49 | 13 / 5–15 | 4 / 2–4 | 2 / 1–2 | 2 / 1–4 | 8 / 5–10 | 27 / 16–28 | 57 / 29–62 | 97 / 46–100 |
| DLI | 20 / 18–21 | 25 / 23–26 | 34 / 32–35 | 43 / 42–44 | 49 / 47–49 | 52 / 51–53 | 52 / 50–52 | 47 / 47–48 | 39 / 39–40 | 30 / 29–31 | 23 / 20–24 | 19 / 16–19 |
| RH % | 54 / 52–61 | 56 / 55–61 | 58 / 56–62 | 56 / 54–61 | 56 / 53–62 | 54 / 50–63 | 52 / 50–62 | 52 / 49–61 | 52 / 50–62 | 53 / 51–61 | 53 / 50–58 | 53 / 51–59 |
Each figure is the median across the 8 grid cells holding the 14 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1116:1242 (34.175, -117.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 8 distinct grid cells holding the 14 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1116:1242 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.00_-118.125, lapse-corrected +136 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 531 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) velodrome, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).
Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Dudleya densiflora, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Crassula connata erect pygmyweed
Salvia apiana Californian White Sage
Penstemon spectabilis Showy Beardtongue
Nolina cismontana Chaparral Nolina
Eschscholzia californica California Poppy
Rhus ovata sugar sumacOther Dudleya 46 in the reference
Dudleya abramsii Abrams' Liveforever
Dudleya acuminata Vizcaino Dudleya
Dudleya albiflora White-Flower Liveforever
Dudleya anomala Todos Santos liveforever
Dudleya anthonyi Anthony's liveforever
Dudleya arizonica Arizona chalk dudleya
Dudleya attenuata Orcutt's dudleya
Dudleya blochmaniae Blochman's Dudleya
Dudleya brittonii Britton's Dudleya
Dudleya campanulata Punta Banda liveforever
Dudleya candelabrum candleholder dudleya
Dudleya candida Coronados liveforever all 47 ›History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 9 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.