Shrubs or trees, erect, 1-4 m; burl absent; twigs sparsely short-hairy. Leaves: petiole 5-7 mm; blade gray-glaucous, dull, oblong- to lanceolate-ovate, 2-4.5 × 1-2.5 cm, base rounded to truncate or ± lobed, margins entire, plane, surfaces smooth, appressed gray-canescent, gla-brescent. Inflorescences panicles, 2-4-branched; imma-ture inflorescence pendent or ascending, (branches curved, bell-shaped), axis 1-2.5 cm, 1+ mm diam., sparsely short-hairy; bracts not appressed, leaflike, linear-lanceolate, 7-14 mm, apex acuminate, surfaces appressed-canescent or glabrous. Pedicels 8-10 mm, glabrous. Flowers: corolla white, conic to urceolate; ovary glabrous. Fruits depressed-globose, 9-14 mm diam., glabrous. Stones distinct. 2n = 26.

Flowering winter-early spring. Chaparral, open, closed-cone conifer forests; 200-700 m; Calif.

Arctostaphylos obispoensis is found in the southern Santa Lucia Mountains on serpentine soils in Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties.