Dudleya is a North American genus in the Crassulaceae family with succulent leaves. Many of them are found on rock crevices on bluffs and cliffs. Most of them are evergreen with a caudex, but some grow from underground corms and are dormant in the summer. There are a number of species from California.
Dudleya blochmaniae ssp. blochmaniae is found on open, rocky slopes often in serpentine or clay dominated soils in coastal Southern California to Baja. It is corm-like, deciduous in summer, and has small white starry flowers in late spring, early summer. Grown from Northwest Native seed. It bloomed in less than a year from seed in August from a fall sowing and then returned the following year in May and was covered with flowers. The last picture shows the underground storage organ on a 1 cm. square grid. This plant finally disappeared even though I attempted to shelter it from the higher amounts of rainfall in my Northern California garden. All photos were taken by Mary Sue Ittner.
