Shrubs, erect, 2-4 m; burl absent; twigs hairy. Leaves: petiole to 2 mm, (hairy); blade glaucous-green, dull, ovate or oblong-ovate, 2.5-4.5 × 2-3 cm, base auriculate-clasping, margins entire, plane, surfaces smooth, glabrous. Inflorescences panicles, 3-5-branched; immature inflorescence pendent, (branches compact, framed by bracts), axis 0.5-1 cm, 1+ mm diam., short-hairy to hispid-hairy, usually eglandular; bracts not appressed, leaflike, widely lanceolate, 5-9 mm, apex acute, surfaces finely glandular-hairy. Pedicels 8-12 mm, finely glandular-hairy. Flowers: corolla white, conic to urceolate; ovary finely glandular-hairy. Fruits depressed-globose, 8-10 mm diam., glandular-hairy, (viscid). Stones distinct. 2n = 26.

Flowering winter-early spring. Maritime chaparral, gaps in open forests; of conservation concern; 200-400 m; Calif.

Arctostaphylos pallida is found on shale barrens in the East Bay Hills, western Contra Costa County, overlooking San Francisco Bay.