candleholder dudleya

This species typically grows from an often solitary basal rosette up to half a meter wide atop a thick, hardy caudex that is swollen at the base. There are 20 to 45 evergreen leaves on the rosette. The leaves are a pale green to pinkish-green, shaped obovate to oblong-oblanceolate, and more or less thin. The leaves may be glaucous, and when torn from the rosette, leave a purple-red wound. Each leaf measures anywhere from 6–22 cm (2.4–8.7 in) long by 3–7 cm (1.2–2.8 in) wide, with an acuminate tip. The unbranched peduncle is generally erect but often bending under the weight of the inflorescence it holds. The peduncle is usually 15–54 cm (5.9–21.3 in) tall while only 6–11 mm (0.24–0.43 in) wide. The bracts are long and reflexed, bending backwards. The lowermost bracts are 1–4 cm (0.39–1.57 in) long. The inflorescence first branches 3 to 7 times, and then those branch another 1 to 2 times. The terminal branches are 2.5–13 cm (0.98–5.12 in) and hold up to 25 flowers. The flower has pale-yellow petals 8–12 mm (0.31–0.47 in) long within its pink-tinged green sepals. Flowering is from May to July. Chromosome number is 17.

Dudleya candelabrum is endemic to the Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands. It occurs on rocky, north-facing slopes below 1,200 ft.

The type specimen was collected by Professor E. L. Greene on Santa Cruz Island, in July and August 1886. The species was described in 1903 with Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose's taxonomic revision of North American Crassulaceae, as part of the creation of the genus Dudleya. Later, German botanists such as Fedde in 1904 and Berger in 1930 would classify it as Cotyledon candelabrum and Echeveria candelabrum respectively, but these redefinitions were outdated after Reid Moran's revision of the genus, along with later phylogenetic work that showed Dudleya as being more closely related to Sedum than to Echeveria.