Species
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Dudleya multicaulis (Rose) Moran

Manystem liveforever, many-stemmed dudleya, many-stemmed liveforever, manystem liveforever

Climate known 155 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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 multicaulis is a succulent plant known by the common name manystem liveforever or many-stemmed dudleya. This Dudleya is endemic to southern California, where it is rare and seriously threatened as its habitat is altered by humans. Many occurrences of this species have been extirpated. This species is characterized by a few short, fingerlike cylindrical leaves with pointed tips, and its erect peduncle, which is topped with a branching inflorescence bearing up to 15 flowers on each long, thin branch. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Dudleya multicaulis”, 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.

Family
Crassulaceae
Described by
(Rose) Moran
Native to
California
Wild records
393 in range· 50 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Aug, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
320mm/yr
5 wet months · peak Feb 76 mm (CHELSA)
Light
19–51DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Dudleya, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March in the northern hemisphere (December to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 320 mm a year, wettest February at 76 mm, driest July at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 51 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 4.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Hasseanthus elongatus Rose; Hasseanthus multicaulis Rose; Hasseanthus oblongorhizus (A.Berger) P.H.Thomson; Hasseanthus variegatus var. elongatus I.M.Johnst.; Sedum elongatum (Rose) Fedde 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 (236 mm of 320 mm) falls in December to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 12.7 °C against a yearly mean of 16.9 °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 320 mm a year, wettest February at 76 mm, driest July at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

320 mm a year at the habitat, 236 mm of it December to March. Wettest month February at 76 mm, driest July at 1 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 283 mm to 580 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 51 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 51 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 18, 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 4.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 4.2 °C, the absolute minimum -0.9 °C, 5 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 4.0 °C to 9.3 °C), warmest day 29.2 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.2 °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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 61% 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 17 °C in Dec to 29 °C in Aug; mean night from 7 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 320 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 57 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -0.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost33.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-0.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 19–51RH 56–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 57 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C17 / 16–1818 / 16–1919 / 17–2021 / 19–2323 / 20–2526 / 22–2828 / 24–3229 / 25–3228 / 25–3124 / 22–2621 / 19–2217 / 16–18
Night °C7 / 4–98 / 5–109 / 7–1110 / 9–1213 / 12–1415 / 15–1618 / 17–1818 / 18–1917 / 16–1814 / 12–1610 / 7–137 / 4–10
Rain mm64 / 56–11676 / 67–13049 / 43–8622 / 19–466 / 5–122 / 2–41 / 1–21 / 1–36 / 5–916 / 14–2630 / 27–5647 / 41–93
DLI20 / 19–2125 / 24–2634 / 34–3543 / 42–4348 / 47–4951 / 51–5351 / 50–5247 / 46–4839 / 39–4030 / 30–3123 / 22–2419 / 18–20
RH %57 / 53–6159 / 56–6361 / 56–6459 / 55–6361 / 55–6461 / 53–6559 / 50–6459 / 50–6459 / 50–6458 / 51–6356 / 52–6156 / 52–61

Each figure is the median across the 57 grid cells holding the 122 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 1130:1250 (33.475, -117.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.3 °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 57 distinct grid cells holding the 122 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1130:1250 (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 33.50_-117.500, lapse-corrected +75 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 322 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCalifornia
Kew's description“succulent subshrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker33.73, -117.654 · in the densest population, 391 records (99% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 393 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 50 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 19 km away. 271 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 393 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Dudleya multicaulisDudleya multicaulisDudleya multicaulisDudleya multicaulisDudleya multicaulisDudleya multicaulisDudleya multicaulisDudleya multicaulis

Photographs: (c) Megan “Moe” Morelock, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Ike Ikemori, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

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 multicaulis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Pollination and Reproduction in Natural and Mitigation Populations of the Many-Stemmed Dudleya, Dudleya multicaulis (Crassulaceae)
C. Eugene Jones, Frances M. Shropshire, Robert L. Allen, Youssef C. Atallah (2010) · Madroño
Population ecology of Dudleya multicaulis (Crassulaceae); a rare narrow endemic.
Marchant Ta, Rubén Alarcón, Simonsen Ja, Harold Koopowitz (1998) · Madroño; a West American journal of botany
Vascular Flora of the San Mateo Canyon Wilderness Area, Cleveland National Forest, California
Steve Boyd, Timothy S Ross, Orlando Mistreta, David Bramlet (1995) · Aliso
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2025) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2025) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2025) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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.

Other Dudleya 46 in the reference

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 answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata 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: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.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 answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 18 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.