Herbs, prostrate (decumbent or procumbent), many branched, 1.5-6 dm, somewhat woody below, coarse, white scurfy. Leaves many, sometimes crowded; blade orbiculate to ovate or ovate-lanceolate to elliptic or oblong, 8-40 × 4-18 mm, base obtuse or rounded, white scurfy. Staminate flowers in dense terminal spikes. Pistillate flowers in few-flowered, axillary clusters. Fruiting bracteoles not compressed, 5-7 mm, faces usually with wartlike projections, scurfy. Seeds dark red-brown, 2.5-3 mm.

Flowering spring-fall. Sea beaches, along coasts, at higher elevation inland; 0-30 m; Calif.; Mexico (Baja California).

Atriplex leucophylla occurs with Potentilla, Camissonia, Ambrosia, Cakile, and Calystegia.