Twigs densely to sparsely short-hairy, not glandular-hairy. Leaf blades green to gray-green, base cuneate to rounded, surfaces papillate, scabrous, glandular-hairy, or smooth, sparsely puberulent. Inflorescences: immature inflorescence axis sparsely to densely glandular-hairy; bracts sparsely to densely glandular-hairy. Pedicels sparsely hairy. Ovaries densely white-hairy, sometimes glandular. Fruits slightly depressed-globose. Stones distinct.

Flowering winter-early spring. Chaparral; 500- 1800 m; Calif.

Subspecies howellii is known from the interior and eastern ranges of the Santa Lucia Mountains, Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties.