Shrubs or trees, erect, 2-8 m; burl absent; twigs densely fine-hairy, with long, white, gland-tipped hairs. Leaves: petiole 3-6 mm; blade glaucous, dull, oblong to ovate, 4-6 × 2-3 cm, base lobed, auriculate, (not clasping), margins entire, plane, surfaces papillate, scabrous, glandular-hairy, ± glabrescent. Inflorescences panicles, 4-6-branched; immature inflorescence pendent, (concealed by bracts), axis 1.5-2.5 cm, 1+ mm diam., densely fine-hairy with long, white, gland-tipped hairs; bracts not appressed, leaflike, lanceolate, 8-20 mm, apex acuminate, surfaces glandular-hairy. Pedicels 8-15 mm, finely glandular-hairy. Flowers: corolla white, conic to urceolate; ovary finely glandular-hairy. Fruits depressed-globose, 6-10 mm diam., glandular-hairy, (viscid). Stones distinct. 2n = 26.

Flowering winter-early spring. Chaparral, open conifer forests; of conservation concern; 900-1200 m; Calif.

Arctostaphylos hooveri is known from the northern Santa Lucia Mountains in Monterey County. Populations are associated with openings in yellow pine forests and patches of chaparral.