This Dudleya grows from an unbranched caudex and is unusual among related plants in that it has stolons from which it sprouts vegetatively.

Other species of Dudleya only grow solitary or produce dichotomous branches, unless their terminal meristems are damaged.

This species produces a small rosette of pointed reddish-green leaves and erects a short peduncle topped with an inflorescence of bright yellow flowers.

The plants identified as D. caespitosa, which is native to the Central Coast of California, differ greatly from Dudleya stolonifera, as D. caespitosa is dichotomously branching, has an elongate caudex, longer, narrow, and thicker leaves, a larger, taller, and more complex inflorescence, and erect fruits.

He also notes that Munz placed another species, Dudleya ovatifolia, from the Santa Monica Mountains, under Echeveria caespitosa.

Moran suggested that on this basis, D. stolonifera could be placed into Stylophyllum, as the attitude of the carpels was previously regarded as an important diagnostic characteristic.

[5] In addition to the Stylophyllum-like trait of the spreading carpels, D. stolonifera appears to readily hybridize with Dudleya edulis and produce fertile offspring.

The hybrids branch dichotomously, have linear leaves, pale yellow petals, and flowers that are ascending at the tips but connate towards the base.

Occurrences in the easily-accessible areas of Aliso Canyon, where plants were once collected, were extirpated by development, with the destruction of that population occurring prior to listing of the species.

[2] Dudleya stolonifera grows on steep, middle Miocene sandstone cliffs, mostly in coastal sage scrub habitat, and sometimes in chaparral.

[4] It grows in very thin soils that support very few types of plants; the dudleya is usually found among only mosses and lichens, and sometimes the fern California polypody (Polypodium californicum).

It may have an association with the lichen Niebla ceruchoides, which might act as a bed for the seeds of the dudleya when they fall to the ground.

Because the populations are few and small the plant may be extirpated by any major local event, such as wildfire, or by processes such as inbreeding depression.