Caudices mostly simple, 1-3 cm diam. Leaves: rosettes 10-25-leaved; blade gray-blue, oblong-oblanceolate, 4-17 × 1.5-6 cm, apex acute to acuminate, surfaces farinose, glaucous. Inflorescences: floral shoots 7-15-leaved, 15-45 cm; cincinni 3+, 5-20-flowered, 4-17 cm. Petals red, 9-10 × 2-3 mm. 2n = 34.

Flowering late spring. On granite; 300-600 m; Calif.

Subspecies gigantea grows in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Amador and Calaveras counties. It includes the largest specimens seen of Dudleya cymosa, and it seems to average larger than other subspecies. As with subsp. pumila, however, this one is not clearly set off from subsp. cymosa; some authors do not recognize it.