Plants 30-150 cm. Stems ascending to erect, green when young, fastigiately branched, glabrous or sparsely hairy, resinous. Leaves ascending to spreading; blades filiform (terete or adaxially sulcate), 3-18(-23) × 0.3-1 mm, midnerves obscure, apices acute, often mucronate, faces glabrous or hairy, gland-dotted (in circular, deep pits), resinous; axillary fascicles of 2-12 leaves, shorter than subtending leaves. Heads in cymiform to paniculiform arrays (2-9 cm wide). Peduncles 1-30 mm (bracts 4+, leaflike). Involucres subcampanulate, 5-8 × 2.5-4.5 mm. Phyllaries 16-24 in 3-5 series, mostly tan, ovate to elliptic, 2.5-7 × 0.6-1.5 mm, unequal, outer ± herbaceous or herbaceous-appendaged, mid and inner mostly chartaceous, midnerves raised, subapical resin ducts darker, ± thickened, expanded apically, (margins ciliate) apices erect, acute to acuminate or mucronate to cuspidate, abaxial faces glabrous or sparsely hairy. Ray florets 2-6; laminae 4-6 × 1-2 mm. Disc florets 5-14; corollas 5.5-8 mm. Cypselae tan to brown, subcylindric, 2.5-4 mm (ribs 8-10), glabrous or hairy, more densely distally; pappi off-white to brown, 5-7 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering late summer-fall, occasionally in spring. Sand dunes or sand hills along and near coast; 0-500 m; Calif.

Ericameria ericoides ranges from Los Angeles to Sonoma counties.