Dudleya pachyphytum Moran & M.Benedict
Cedros 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 pachyphytum is an insular succulent plant known by the common name Cedros Island liveforever. It is a member of the genus Dudleya, in the family Crassulaceae. Characterized by thick, blunt leaves covered in a white, powdery wax and adorned by white flowers in bloom, it is regarded as one of the most attractive and charismatic members of its genus. It is endemic to the foggy northern end of Mexico's Cedros Island, occupying an ecological niche shared with the Cedros Island Pine.
Text from Wikipedia, “Dudleya pachyphytum”, 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
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: no rainy season to read (70 mm a year); the temperature rule's cooler six months are December to May in the northern hemisphere.
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
Rain at the habitat is 70 mm a year (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Under 120 mm the rain rule reads no rainy season, and the growing-season rule infers nothing from it. The temperature rule reads the cooler six months as December to May. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to November.
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 70 mm a year, wettest December at 16 mm, driest June at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
70 mm a year at the habitat. Wettest month December at 16 mm, driest June at 1 mm; 6 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 66 mm to 219 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: 22 to 48 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 48 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).
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 10.1 °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 10.1 °C, the absolute minimum 6.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 21.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 13.2 °C in February (across the envelope cells 11.9 °C to 14.3 °C), warmest day 20.9 °C in September (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.1 °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: 53 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 16 / 15–21 | 16 / 15–22 | 16 / 15–24 | 16 / 15–26 | 17 / 17–28 | 18 / 17–30 | 19 / 19–31 | 20 / 20–32 | 21 / 20–31 | 20 / 19–28 | 19 / 18–24 | 17 / 16–21 |
| Night °C | 14 / 11–15 | 13 / 12–14 | 14 / 13–14 | 14 / 14–16 | 16 / 14–18 | 17 / 16–21 | 18 / 18–24 | 19 / 19–24 | 19 / 19–24 | 18 / 17–20 | 16 / 15–17 | 14 / 12–15 |
| Rain mm | 12 / 11–22 | 12 / 10–26 | 7 / 6–21 | 2 / 2–5 | 2 / 1–2 | 1 / 1–3 | 1 / 1–34 | 1 / 1–40 | 3 / 3–32 | 7 / 6–12 | 6 / 6–16 | 16 / 14–23 |
| DLI | 24 / 24–27 | 30 / 30–32 | 39 / 38–41 | 45 / 45–48 | 47 / 47–52 | 48 / 48–52 | 48 / 46–48 | 45 / 43–45 | 40 / 39–41 | 33 / 33–35 | 26 / 26–28 | 22 / 22–24 |
| RH % | 53 / 52–59 | 54 / 51–61 | 56 / 51–63 | 57 / 49–64 | 61 / 51–66 | 59 / 51–70 | 57 / 52–75 | 57 / 54–74 | 57 / 54–70 | 56 / 52–64 | 54 / 51–60 | 53 / 52–59 |
Each figure is the median across the 5 grid cells holding the 11 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 1234:1295 (28.275, -115.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 21.8 °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 5 distinct grid cells holding the 11 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1234:1295 (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 28.50_-115.000, lapse-corrected +465 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 473 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Dudleya pachyphytum, 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.
Ferocactus chrysacanthus Cactaceae
Agave sebastiana Cedros Agave
Dudleya linearis San Benitos Liveforever Dudleya guadalupensis Guadalupe Dudleya
Cistanthe guadalupensis Montiaceae
Verbena lilacina VerbenaceaeOther 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 nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)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 did not answerapi.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivationopenalex 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 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.