It is characterized by pale yellowish flowers, oblong to oblanceolate leaves and a growth habit not limited to a single substrate.

The leaves are 3 to 10 cm, 5 to 20 mm wide, shaped oblong, oblanceolate to lance-oblong, green to more or less white, and the foliage may or may not be glaucous, leaf tip acute.

The petals are 1.5 to 2.5 mm wide, colored a pale yellow to white-yellow, or pale-yellow pink in the San Joaquin Valley.

Botanist Kei M. Nakai later again separated paniculata as Dudleya cymosa subsp.

paniculata can be differentiated from its close relative,[4] Dudleya abramsii subsp.

paniculata plants have oblong to oblanceolate rosette leaves rather than oblong-triangular leaves, an inflorescence of 2 to 3 branches that rebranch once or twice rather than an inflorescence of 2 to 3 branches that do not rebranch, and pedicels that are 6 to 12 mm long against pedicels that are 4 to 7 mm long.

setchellii is also only restricted to serpentine rock outcrops, while this species occurs on a variety of substrates.