Perennials or subshrubs. Trichomes of leaves 2-rayed mixed with 3(-5)-rayed ones. Stems erect, often branched distally, (woody at base), 0.6-5(-6) dm. Basal leaves (often withered in suffrutescent plants); blade oblanceolate to oblanceolate-linear, 2.5-17 cm × (2-)3-16(-20) mm, base attenuate, margins sinuate-dentate or dentate, apex acute. Cauline leaves (distal) petiolate; blade margins usually dentate, rarely denticulate. Racemes considerably elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels divaricate to ascending, stout, narrower than fruit, 5-17(-22) mm. Flowers: sepals oblong to linear-oblong, 8-12(-15) mm, lateral pair saccate basally; petals yellow to cream, obovate to suborbicular, 14-29 × 5-12(-15) mm, claw 9-17 mm, apex rounded; median filaments 9-15 mm; anthers linear, 2.5-4 mm. Fruits usually ascending, rarely spreading, narrowly linear, straight or curved upward, not or, rarely, slightly torulose, (3.8-)4-11(-14) cm × 2-4 mm, latiseptate, not striped; valves with somewhat prominent midvein, pubescent outside, trichomes (2 or) 3 (or 4)-rayed, glabrous inside; ovules 32-64 per ovary; style cylindrical, slender, 0.5-3.5 mm, sparsely pubescent; stigma 2-lobed, lobes as long as wide. Seeds oblong, 2-3.5(-4) × 1.2-2.2(-2.5) mm; wing distal, present on 1 or both margins. 2n = 36.

Flowering Jan-Apr. Serpentine outcrops, coastal scrub or sand dunes, granitic hillsides; 0-500 m; Calif.

Erysimum franciscanum is known from Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz counties. Historical records indicate that it grew previously in Sonoma County.