Plants 20-90 cm. Stems green to reddish brown when young, branched, glabrous or sparsely hairy (sometimes tomentulose), often gland-dotted (sessile). Leaves ascending to spreading; blades filiform to narrowly oblong (adaxially flat to sulcate), 20-70 × 0.5-4 mm, midnerves evident abaxially, apices acute, sometimes mucronate, faces glabrous or sparsely hairy, often gland-dotted (sessile) and appearing pustular ; axillary leaf fascicles sometimes present. Heads in (leafy) racemiform to narrowly paniculiform arrays (2-15 cm). Peduncles 3-15 mm (bracts usually 0). Involucres narrowly campanulate, 8-11 × 7-12 mm. Phyllaries 17-36 in 3-6 series, green to tan, ovate to linear-lanceolate, 3.5-11 × 0.8-2 mm, subequal, herbaceous or herbaceous-tipped, mid and inner chartaceous, midnerves evident at least on distal ¹ / 2 , (margins ciliate) apices acute to acuminate or cuspidate, abaxial faces glabrous or hairy, sometimes gland-dotted, resinous. Ray florets 0-5; laminae elliptic, 8-12 × 1.5-3 mm. Disc florets 4-14; corollas 7-11 mm. Cypselae tan to reddish brown, narrowly elliptic, 6-10 mm, glabrous or apically villous; pappi tan to reddish brown, 6-9 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering summer-fall. Sandy or rocky soils, openings in coniferous woods, Arid Transition and Canadian zones; 1000-3000 m; B.C.; Calif., Idaho, Nev., Oreg., Wash.

Ericameria bloomeri is apparently extirpated in British Columbia. It is widespread, relatively common, and variable. The significance of infraspecific taxa named by H. M. Hall (1928) is largely unexplored.