Plants 30-150 cm. Stems erect to ascending, green when young, fastigiately branched, glabrous or sparsely hairy, resinous. Leaves ascending to spreading; blades filiform (terete or flattened), 5-25 × 1-2 mm, midnerves obscure, apices acute often mucronate, faces glabrous or sparsely hairy, regularly gland-dotted (in circular, deep pits), resinous; axillary fascicles of 2-10 leaves, shorter than subtending leaves. Heads mostly borne singly, sometimes in cymiform to racemiform arrays (4-6 cm wide). Peduncles 1-15 mm (bracts 3+, leaflike). Involucres subcampanulate, 6-8.5 × 5-7 mm. Phyllaries 22-26 in 3-5 series, yellowish tan, ovate to lanceolate, 2.5-7 × 0.6-1.5 mm, unequal, mostly chartaceous, midnerves evident, sometimes with 1-2, collateral nerves, ± thickened, raised, often expanded distally, subapical resin ducts darker, narrow and only slightly thickened, (margins membranous, erose-ciliate) apices erect, acute to acuminate or cuspidate, abaxial faces glabrous or sparsely hairy. Ray florets 4-6; laminae 4.5-6 × 1.2-2 mm. Disc florets 18-25; corollas 6.5-8 mm. Cypselae tan to brown, subcylindric, 3.5-4 mm, sericeous to villous; pappi off-white to reddish brown, 6.5-8 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering summer-fall, occasionally in spring. Sandy soils; of conservation concern; 0-500 m; Calif.

Ericameria fasciculata is known only from near Monterey and Carmel bays (Monterey County). It probably hybridizes with E. ericoides.