Shrubs, erect, 1-2 m; burl absent; twigs sparsely short-hairy, usually with scattered long-glandular hairs. Leaves: petiole 3-5 mm; blade light green, not glaucous, dull, elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 1.5-3 × 1-1.5 cm, base cuneate, (not clasping), margins entire, plane, surfaces smooth, puberulent with small, interspersed, glandular hairs, glabrescent. Inflorescences panicles, 3-5-branched, immature inflorescence pendent, branches spreading, axis 1.5-2.5 cm, 1+ mm diam., sparsely short-hairy, usually with scattered, long-glandular hairs; bracts not appressed, scalelike, ovate to deltate, 1-1.3 mm, apex acute, surfaces hairy. Pedicels 3-8 mm, glabrous. Flowers: corolla white, conic to urceolate; ovary glabrous. Fruits depressed-globose, 5-8 mm diam., glabrous. Stones distinct. 2n = 26.

Flowering winter-early spring. Knobcone pine chaparral, siliceous shale ridges; of conservation concern; 300-400 m.; Calif.

Arctostaphylos ohloneana is known from northern Ben Lomond Mountain in northern Santa Cruz County.