Dudleya, commonly known as liveforevers is a genus of rosette-forming succulent plants in the stonecrop family, Crassulaceae, consisting of about 68 taxa in southwestern North America and Guadalupe Island. The species come in many forms, some large and evergreen, others geophytic and deciduous. Yet, despite their dramatic variations in appearance, most species readily hybridize. The flowers of Dudleya have parts numbered in fives, with the petals arranged in tubular, star-shaped, and bell-shaped forms and, when fruiting, are filled with tiny, ovoid-crescent-shaped seeds.
Image: J20171114 0036—Dudleya virens ssp insularis—RPBG—Dx O (37663360805)
Image: Dudleya nesiotica (Santa Cruz Island liveforever) (13998561076)
Image: Dudleya arizonica 1
Image: J20180111 0014—Dudleya farinosa—RPBG—Dx O (25841707838)
The Crassulaceae, 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 Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM). Flowers generally have five floral parts. Crassulaceae are usually herbaceous but there are some subshrubs, and relatively few treelike or aquatic plants. Crassulaceae are a medium-sized monophyletic family in the core eudicots, among the order Saxifragales, whose diversity has made infrafamilial classification very difficult. The family includes approximately 1,400 species and 34–35 genera, depending on the circumscription of the genus Sedum, and distributed over three subfamilies. Members of the Crassulaceae are found worldwide, but mostly in the Northern Hemisphere and southern Africa, typically in dry and/or cold areas where water may be scarce, although a few are aquatic.
Crassulaceae
Aeonium arboreum (Aeonieae): Succulent leaves in rosettes
Kalanchoe pinnata (Kalanchoöideae): Corolla tubes
Sempervivum sp. (Sempervivoideae): Apopetaly, actinomorphy, polymery, stamens in 2 whorls