It is a somewhat small plant, continuing a southward trend of decreasing size relative to other Dudleya virens subspecies.

This plant is endemic to Guadalupe Island in the eastern Pacific Ocean, which is 241 kilometers off of the Baja California coast.

It is very rare, with this plant only surviving on sheer cliff faces and canyons, out of the reach of the former feral goat population rampant on the island.

[6] Moran and Lindsay continued returning to the island, eventually gathering more information on the Dudleya species that occurred on the northern cliffs and canyons.

The plants on Hemizonia Cliff have oblong to oblanceolate leaves covered in a white farina, and clustered, subsessile rosettes.

Green, diploid plants with narrower and sharply acute leaves were discovered in the cliffs and canyons farther south, which Moran thought might make it feasible to distinguish these two taxa on the island.

[4] Phylogenetic analyses have placed this plant as a probable sister taxon to Dudleya guadalupensis, which occurs on the southern end of Guadalupe Island and its islets.

Plants are only found on the north and northeast half of the island, on steep, north-facing cliffs and canyons, and under rocks in the forest of Quercus tomentella.