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Dudleya edulis
Also called Ladies' fingers, Ladies Fingers, Mission Lettuce
Fingertips is a drought-tolerant succulent with pale green, finger-shaped leaves that grows from a small caudex at ground level. It thrives in full sun, gritty well-drained soil, and needs very little water.
Dudleya edulis is a species of perennial, succulent flowering plant of the Crassulaceae, known by the common names fingertips, lady-fingers, mission lettuce, or simply the San Diego dudleya. The common name "fingertips" denotes the finger-like shape of the leaves; the specific epithet edulis (meaning "edible") refers to the Kumeyaay people's traditional foraging and consumption of the plant's young scapes. Dudleya edulis is native to the dry, coastal cliffs and chaparral hills of Southern California and northern Baja California, where it has adapted to absorb as much moisture as possible from the nightly fog and marine layer which forms over the Pacific Ocean and gradually moves slightly inland, typically covering all plants and stationary objects in dew.
Dudleya edulis is cultivated as an ornamental plant, planted in native plant and wildlife gardens, drought tolerant rock gardens, and as specimens in pots. Thomas Nuttall noted the use of the plant as a food source by the indigenous occupants of the land, which gives the plant its specific epithet. The native peoples would harvest the young tender leaves in spring, and eat them raw. The Tiipai members of the Kumeyaay had a specific name for the narrow-leaved Dudleya like this plant, calling them milh kajmila.
Dudleya edulis is endemic to chaparral areas and the many miles of sandstone ocean cliffs and coastal canyons stretching from Southern California and south into northwestern Mexico's Baja California. In California, it is known from the coastal areas of Orange County and east through southern Riverside County; south through San Diego County, ranging roughly 40 miles inland from the ocean and at elevations of around 4,200 feet (approx. 1300 m) above sea level, in places. Its range continues south into the Rio San Vicente drainage in Baja California, a region spanning over 190 miles (305 km) inland from the Pacific coast and east towards the southwest flank of Cuyamaca Peak (the second-highest peak in San Diego). In its southern distribution, the plant is to be found primarily on north-facing slopes and cliffs as opposed to west-facing, maritime exposures.
Abrams' liveforever · San Bernardino Mountains liveforever · Limestone dudleya · Dudleya cymosa subsp. costatifolia · Abrams' liveforever · Vizcaino liveforever · White-flowered liveforever · Todos Santos liveforever · Anthony's Liveforever · Arizona Chalk Dudleya · Tapertip liveforever · Blochman's liveforever
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dudleya edulis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
