Look to me like it might be Bulbine.

It looks like a fingers variety of Dudleya. Dudleyas should be starting to flower in So Cal right now, so yours might need re-potting &/ or more moisture. Once it starts growing again, you need to look at the flower & see whether the leaves are symmetric or asymmetric to start getting an ID. It looks like they may be asymmetric.
Desert Tropicals has some info on Dudleya, but it looks outdated & incomplete. If you can, look at the latest JepsonÂs manual. It is expensive to buy, but if you go to a bookstore you can usually find the information you need. In the manual you will find the leaf description, & detailed botanic information. Most of these are CA natives, & the folks at UC Berkely are most likely to have the most updated info. Parts of their manual are online. On the link below is some info on the species & flowers:

Here is a link that might be useful: Dudleya varieties

dana - does the leaf on this plant look kinda like succulent grass? (its hard to tell from that angle) i had a plant that someone gave me, it looked like a clump of grass but succulent and had wonderful yellow and orange flowers on stalks. i never found a name for it. sorry i am no help for an id.

I vote bulbine. Wait until it flowers, both are flowering now in Socal.

Maybe a Dudleya attenuata-- it has slender leaves.

dvl

Here is a link that might be useful: Desert Tropicals

Definitely not a Dudleya - the leaves are all wrong. I agree with Desert Gardener that it's a Bulbine. A second gues, unlikely as it is, is Aloe parallelifolia.

i couldnt find a. parallelifolia pic for comparison.
the dudleya attenuata at DT looks similar in growth pattern but these leaves are not bluish in color but rather yellow-green with yellow toward the tips.
the plant color and flower stalk looks like Bulbine natalensis but the plant structure is definately more like Bulbine frutescens...so i am stumped!

Here is a link that might be useful: i used these pix

Could it be a thin leafed form of Cotyledon orbiculata? Just a wild guess!!

Attached is a link to Aloe parallelifolia - it's a choice plant, and is similar to Borrego's plant, but it isn't it. My guess remains that what he (?) has is the yellow or orange-flowered form of a Bulbine, perhaps B. frutescens, a common plant down here in the SW corner.

Here's a link to the Bulbine pics for you, Borrego:

http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-22,GGLD:en&q=bulbine&sa=N&tab=wi

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to Aloe parallelifolia pics

jeff - thanks for the links! the aloe is quite unique. and i do believe bulbine frutscens is the correct id for this plant. i had not seen this plant before this past summer when it was *gifted* along with a canna purchase. it was on my mystery plant list...mystery solved.

If you think of it, please post a picture of your plant once it comes back. ItÂs just that I have seen DudleyaÂs look like yours when they are a prolonged period in pots. They like the ground. I have had some native southern CA dudleyaÂs that look like yours, and the only way I bought them back was to stick in the ground. Regardless of what is it is, it should look nice when it flowers.

Baci,

In the link provided above are some pics of Bulbines in flower - they are quite worthwhile growing (one doesn't really need to do anything for them). The most common one seen in these parts is the pure yellow-flowering form, but there's the second-most common one that has both yellow and orage flowers - IMHO the prettier one.