Amazing Dudleyas in desert

Soon after we moved to this barren hillside in Acton, California and saw nothing but weeds and dead plants on the property, I discovered this little Dudleya lanceolata growing happily on the hill.. turns out there were dozens and dozens of them, mostly hidden in dead bushes and under cacti… but some were in the full open already starting to flower. First photo is of plant in early April… the next two are of the plants in May. Fourth is plant in early August when I was sure our severe drought and excessive heat had killed it (we had 3" rain in 2 years, and the days were in the hundreds for weeks on end)… I was hitting myself for not digging these plants up and and moving to the yard where I could water them year round….. but then amazingly enough, here it is this month! And there are many new ones this years… so obviously reproduction was successful despite the baking heat, freezing cold in winter (down to 18F) and the nearly total lack of any water..

Native plants are awesome. They really do seem to take care of themselves.

That's a tough Dudleya. I've seen them in the desert here but they weren't thriving like that. Definitely hidden under and between things, very much unlike the ones that grow along the coast.

Dudleyas know how to handle things in their difficult environments.
I've wondered how you have been doing, Palmbob, with your challenging setting.

would be better if my other plants could figure out how the Dudleyas survived this climate. But I am slowly finding other things that grow here (a few other Dudleyas by they way, including, surprisingly, D brittonii, which looks great year round AND for some reason tastes horrible to rabbits).

Yes, it seems to taste bad to bunnies and squirrels. They will eat Aeoniums, Echeverias, Aloes, whatever... but not the Dudleyas.

They do eat some Dudleyas (hassei, caespitosa, traskiae)- happily gobbled them to the ground... but the chalky brittonii and pulverulentas were untouched. they also don't seem to eat these lanceolatas growing all over. I just planted cymosa and keeping my fingers crossed with them, but am not going to be surprised if these get eaten, too.

Don't eat all Echeverias, either... no fuzzy ones, not E colorata or agavoides, or cante... but just about all the rest (so far).

Don't eat Aloe maculata, either... but sure like a lot of the others.

The rabbits here prefer Opuntias and Dasylirion wheeleris to these Crassulaceae exceptions... they must really taste bad!

The native Dudleyas (green brittonii, attenuata) seem to be safe from the critters. Just had a big E. chihuahuensis get munched to bits, but an agavoides was untouched. The spotted aloes seem to be extra tasty (some, but not all) and that includes a couple of hybrids with spots that I like a lot (Cynthia Giddy, Rooikappie). Grrrr. Time to refine my tastes so they don't align...