Corms subglobose to oblong, 1-3 cm × 3-15 mm. Leaves 4-12; petiole 0.5-3 mm wide, to 1/3 as wide as blade; blade blue-green or yellow-green, oblanceolate to spatulate, 1-7 cm × 3-11 mm, 1.5-4 mm thick, base 1-6 mm wide, apex acute to rounded, surfaces not glaucous. Inflorescences: cincinni 2-11-flowered, 2-15 cm; floral shoots 5-20 cm × 0.5-2 mm at base, to 3 mm wide at middle; leaves 10-26, ascending, blade triangular-ovate to -lanceolate, 0.5-3 cm × 3-10 mm, 2-5 mm thick, apex acute to obtuse. Flowers mostly odorless; petals connate 0.5-1 mm, spreading from near middle, bright yellow (fading whitish), often red-lineolate on keel, elliptic, 5-8 × 2-3.5 mm, apex acute, corolla ca. 8-15 mm diam.; pistils separate, suberect; ovary 2.5-5 mm; styles 1.5-2 mm. Follicles widespreading, with adaxial margins nearly horizontal. 2n = 34.

Flowering late spring. Hillsides and especially mesas with heavy clay soil, rarely at edge of salt marshes; of conservation concern; 0-500 m; Calif.; Mexico (Baja California).

Dudleya variegata is endemic to an area some 80 kilometers long, from near San Diego into northwest Baja California, much of it urban; it is considered fairly threatened in California (California Native Plant Society, http://cnps.web.aplus.net/cgi-bin/inv/inventory.cgi). In Baja California, it hybridizes with D. attenuata subsp. attenuata (R. V. Moran 1951).