Shrubs, erect, 1-2 m; burl absent; twigs sparsely to densely soft-hairy with some glandular hairs. Leaves: petiole to 4 mm; blade glaucous, dull, oblong to oblong-ovate, 2-5 × 1-3 cm, base distinctly lobed, auriculate-clasping, margins entire, plane, surfaces smooth, gray-canescent, glabrescent. Inflorescences panicles, 2-4-branched; immature inflorescence pendent, branches spreading, curved, (obscured by bracts), axis 1.5-2.5 cm, 1+ mm diam., sparsely to densely soft-hairy with glandular hairs; bracts not appressed, leaflike, oblong-lanceolate, 5-15 mm, apex acute, surfaces canescent. Pedicels 5-8 mm, finely glandular-hairy. Flowers: corolla white, urceolate; ovary densely long white-hairy, hairs often gland-tipped. Fruits depressed-globose, 7-14 mm diam., glandular-hairy, (viscid). Stones distinct. 2n = 26.

Flowering winter-early spring. Chaparral, closed-cone conifer forests; of conservation concern; 500- 700 m; Calif.

Arctostaphylos glutinosa is found in chaparral and knobcone pine woodlands on Monterey Shale barrens near the Pacific Coast in a limited area of the central Santa Cruz Mountains on northern Ben Lomond Mountain in Santa Cruz County.