Stems erect or spreading to prostrate, 0.5-2 dm; branches almost horizontal, fragile, white scurfy, appearing almost pubescent, becoming sparingly villous in inflorescence. Leaves numerous, opposite or alternate, distal ones imbricate, sessile; blade gray to white, lanceolate to ovate, (2-)4-10 × 3-5 mm, rigid, base rounded, margin entire, densely scurfy. Staminate flowers mostly in distal axils pistillate in proximal axils. Fruiting bracteoles deciduous, ovate or rhombic, slightly compressed, 2.5-3.5 mm and as broad, united ¹/2 of length, often subhastately lobed, entire or with few teeth on each side, faces smooth or tuberculate. Seeds dark brown or almost black, 1.2 mm.

Flowering late summer-fall. Saline substrates; of conservation concern; below 100 m; Calif.

Atriplex parishii var. parishii differs further from var. depressa in the trichomes, which have been characterized as woolly, but individual trichomes are evident.