Dudleya edulis (Mission Lettuce)

Mission Lettuce / Fingertips (Dudleya edulis) is a strikingly architectural native succulent of southern California and northern Baja California, restricted to coastal sage scrub and chaparral on rocky outcrops in San Diego County and points south. It is NOT native to Oregon. We carry it as a specialty California native succulent, beautiful and unusual, but honestly out-of-region for the Pacific Northwest.

Its signature feature is the foliage. Cylindrical finger-shaped leaves, two to six inches long, dusted with a chalky farinose bloom that gives them a soft blue-gray-silver glow, form basal rosettes that mound slowly into colonies. From May through July, tall slender stalks rise above the rosettes carrying clusters of star-shaped white flowers, often blushed pink at the tips. Anna's and Costa's hummingbirds work the bloom stalks across the native range; native bees take nectar.

The flowers and foliage are mildly edible (the species name 'edulis' means 'edible'), and the plant has been used historically by Indigenous Nations of southern California for limited food and medicinal purposes.

Habit: evergreen succulent, 4 to 6 inches tall in foliage, bloom stalks to 12 to 18 inches.

Conditions: full sun, sharp drainage, very low summer water (essentially dry-summer dormancy), bright but cool winter conditions. Hardy Zone 9 to 11. In Langlois (Zone 9a edge), best grown in a container that can be sheltered under eaves through winter to avoid prolonged cold-wet. Use cactus mix with extra pumice and grit. Reliably deer-resistant. Pair in a container or rock-garden alpine-house setting with other small Dudleya, Sedum spathulifolium, Sempervivum, or California native succulents.