Plants 0.2-1.5 × 0.5-3(-5) dm. Leaf blades 0.5-3 cm × 0.2-0.8(-1) mm. Inflorescences yellowish green to green or red; bracts erect or nearly so, narrowly lanceolate, 0.4-1.5(-2) cm × 0.8-1.5(-2) mm; awns uncinate, (0.5-)1-2(-2.5) mm. Involucral bracts erect, linear, 0.3-1(-1.2) cm × 0.3-1 mm; awns uncinate, 0.5-2 mm. Flowers: perianth 2-3.5 mm (including awns); tepals connate ca. 3 their length, narrowly lanceolate; filaments 0.5-1 mm; anthers 0.2-0.3 mm. Achenes 2.5-3 mm. 2n = 42, 60.

Flowering Feb-Jun. Sandy to gravelly soils in coastal and inland grassland, coastal scrub and chaparral communities, pine-oak woodlands; 0-800 m; Calif.; Mexico (Baja California).

Lastarriaea coriacea grows along the coast from Sonoma County to San Diego County, and in the foothills and mountains from Calaveras County to western Riverside County.