Stems decumbent at base, straggling to erect, leafy through-out, sparsely branched, scaly proximally below ground, with soft, short pubescence. Leaves: proximal blades oblanceolate, sometimes broadly so, narrowed into short pseudopetiole, 2-6 cm × 6-25 mm, shortly pubescent abaxially, subglabrous adaxially; distal sessile, blade lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate to broadly elliptic, 2-9 cm × 5-30 mm, apex acute to shortly acuminate. Inflorescences poorly developed, usually 1-3(-5)-flowered, open cymes, bracteate; bracts leaflike, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate. Calyces broadly tubular, widened distally, 15-25 × 4-8 mm in flower, obovate to turbinate in fruit and to 13 mm broad, more than 1/2 as broad as long. Capsules ovoid. 2n = 48, 72.

Flowering spring-summer. Dry, open woodlands, chaparral, rocky hillsides and cliffs; 0-2200 m; Calif., Mexico.

The recently described Silene serpentinicola is similar to subsp. californica but differs in its short, erect, more or less solitary flowering stems and the much larger appendages of the flowers.