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Follow-up to these plants 5 days later (note I put in fictional dates and fictional locations with a large uncertainty radius to obscure the location of these plants):

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/102278702

iNat limits posts to 20 pix, so the next time I get a chance I'll put the rest of the pix in another obs.

Summary of characteristics from these fresh samples:

3 rosettes from single root.
wide portion of caudex up to 20 mm long x 14 mm wide

rosettes 3.5 cm in width

lvs 19-33 per rosette

longest lf 39 x 11 mm, unpressed thickness 4.0 mm, pressed thickness 3.2 mm.

lf mostly oblong, with widest portion of leaf at middle to 1/4 length down from tip (i.e., at 0.5 - 0.75 of length of length, measured from proximal end).

cross section of leaf is strongly flattened (thickness to width ratio of 3.2 / 11 = 0.29) and only slightly curved.

peduncle 20-85 mm, 3.5 mm wide at base

infl consists of 2-3 main branches, with the branches being simple or forked into two subequal 2 deg branches.

uppermost bract (just below main infl branches) 4.5 x 3.8 to 7 x 4.5 and 8.5 x 4 mm

14-23 fls per infl

ultimate infl branches with 3-7 flowers.

pedicels 3-7 mm.

calyx 3.5-5.0 mm long (including connate portion), lobe width at base 2-4 mm

petals:

• 7.5-11 (12.2) mm, connate for 1.0-2.1 mm (13-26% of length)
• bright yellow to orange
• somewhat to markedly keeled, keel marked pink

anthers 7.0-7.5 mm, distal end below petal tips by 2.9 mm, attached at same point of corolla to having one or more antisepalous anthers attached 0.4-2.0 mm higher than others (i.e., some flowers have one attached 0 mm higher; others 0.5 mm higher; and others 2.0 mm higher).

Disagreements with D. cymosa pumila:

• rosette with up to 33 leaves, more than the "usually 10-25 leaved".
• the peduncles can be shorter than 5-15 (25) cm, being as short as 2 cm.
• the petals can be shorter than 10-12 mm, being as short as 7.5 mm.

Disagreements with just the species D. cymosa:

• the 3.5 cm rosette width is at the small end of the D. cymosa range of (3)6-15(35) cm. However, voucher measurements might be too small, since the rosette seems to curl up once the plant leaves the ground.
• the pedicels of 3-7 mm are shorter than the "usually 5-15 mm" for D. cymosa.

I have all the individual measurements of all the pedicels, etc., if anyone wants them. They are way too numerous to post here, and have been summarized above.

The location and observation date is intentionally obscured, since this is the only location we've seen this species at San Jacinto Mountain. There were only ten plants seen; this observation, and the following eight, show nine of those plants.

These plants were first spotted by James Dillane in 2007. Dave Stith relocated them in on this trip in 2011.

These are almost surely the same plants as in Jaeger's 1921 voucher from "Tahquitz Ridge - desert side - 9000 feet elevation" (which has an erroneous elevation, since the highest point on Tahquitz Ridge is 8792 feet).

Jaeger's voucher was originally determined as "D. abramsii" by Reid Moran, who cites this voucher as "D. abramsii" in his 1951 Dudleya monograph.

That voucher was redetermined as "D. cymosa aff. ssp. pumila" in 1988. Nakai wrote:

Moran (1951) listed two populations of D. abramsii from the San Jacinto Mountains, one from near Kenworthy [Munz 5788 (POM)] and the other from Taquitz (sic) Ridge, 9000 ft (2770 m) [Jaeger in 1921 (POM)]. The population near Kenworthy is D. abramsii, but differs from typical D. abramsii by lacking the characteristic red striations along the petal midrib.

 

The specimen from Tahquitz Ridge differs considerably from the Kenworthy population in its comparatively broad, oblong to ovate leaves and short floral stem. It resembles no specimens of D. abramsii that I have studied.

...

The status of these populations is uncertain until more material can be studied, but it appears they are not D. abramsii.

Some measurements I made in the field:

rosette width is 3.5 cm.

leaf length x width: 30 x 11; 17 x 5; 12 x 6 mm for the largest leaves. Hence the leaf length is 12 to 30 mm; the leaf width is 5 to 11 mm; and the ratio of width to length is 0.29 to 0.50.

peduncle length is 2.5 to 4.0 cm.

these plants have 1 deg infl branches that are branched zero to one times, although one of the plants in this series of posts might be branched two times.

the # of flowers on each ultimate infl branch is 3 to 4.

pedicel length. This was very hard to measure in the field. I measured the longest at 7 mm, and my pix show some at 4 mm.

i measured just one flower, with sepals of 3.5 mm and petals of 10 mm.

Summary of all my measurements compared to D. abramsii and D. cymosa:

• 2 fit only D. cymosa (both key characteristics)
• 1 favors D. cymosa.
• 1 fits only D. abramsii.
• 2 favor D. abramsii.
• 2 don't fit either taxon.

Didn’t notice any other recent records nearby. Clearly visible from hwy 1. Population of approx 10 plants here, all emerging from iceplant covered dune. Another individual (at least 1) nearby in fwy median strip slightly further north, also blooming currently.