Aloe cryptopoda is usually stemless or has a short decumbent hidden stem (acaulescent), up to a 800 mm long, and grows alone or in small groups. The leaves are narrow and oblong up to 900 x 150 mm, ascending in a dense apical rosette. They are greyish green and without any spines on the surface but there are reddish brown teeth along the margins, which are small and pointed. The leaf sap is yellowish brown and bitter. The inflorescence is an erect panicle to 1,75 m high bearing up to 8 racemes. Racemes are conical, to 400 mm long and laxly flowered. Flowers are cylindrical, 40 x 7 mm, the buds reddish, turning yellow when open. In some forms the flowers remain yellow. The stamens protrude slightly. Capsules measure 23 x 13 mm. Seeds are grey, up to 5 mm in diameter. It usually flowers in June and July (winter).

Aloe cryptopoda is at once distinguished by its almost acaulescent rosettes, erect leaves turning brownish and the erect conical racemes of orange-red cyldindric, slightly club-shaped (clavate) reddish flowers. Its leaves become yellowish under stress. The plants are variable and yellow flowering forms are known.