Succulent Plant Growing on Rock. Castle Rock State Park, California. April 24, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Black and white photograph of a single succulent plant growing on an almost barren rock face at Castle Rock State Park, California.
I wish I had a better title for this photograph, but I’m afraid that I am not expert at plant identification. (Yes, I’m hoping that someone who knows about these things will offer an identification – I’ll change the title to reflect this. Thanks in advance!)
(Update: “Thank you!” to Gena and Guy who suggest that it is a type of stonecrop. That makes sense to me.)
On this warm spring-like morning I hiked at Castle Rock State Park along the summit ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains – this was my first hike of the season on which it actually felt like spring rather than winter. (It has been a wet winter here in the San Francisco Bay Area.) As I passed over a rocky section of the trail to Goat Rock I paused to think about photographing some ferns and wildflowers that were growing against the base of a small rock face. I didn’t find anything along those lines worth photographing, but I did spot this single specimen of some sort of small succulent plant growing out of seemingly nothing in the middle of the rock face. The plant’s location was so improbable that I stopped and looked around for another of the same type, but this seemed to be the only one.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM at 105mm
ISO 100, f/16, 2 seconds
keywords: black and white, monochrome, single, succulent, plant, leaf, pointed, spring, season, cliff, wall, moss, lichen, trail, hike, castle rock, state, park, california, usa, north america, nature, flora, vegetation, barren, face, stock
Here’s a picture of Dudleya in bloom at Coe Park:
http://www.coestatepark.com/dudleya_sp_488.htm
and here’s a picture of Sedum:
http://www.coestatepark.com/sedum_spathulifolium_coe.htm
Hi Dan, I believe this is a species of Dudleya, or rock-lettuce, in the Stonecrop family. A cousin of the Sedum mentioned above.
Nice image, Dan! I think it’s some variant of sedum (aka stonecrop).
Guy
Thanks, Guy and Gena. I think you might be right about the “stonecrop” identification. Someone else told me that it eventually produces an interesting flower – I’ll have to go back to this plant soon. One thing that got my attention was that it was growing in the middle of an almost featureless rock face – it must be a pretty tough plant!