Shrubs, erect, 1-3 m; burl absent; twigs glabrous, sparsely short-hairy, or densely glandular-hairy. Leaves: petiole 5-12 mm; blade white-glaucous, dull, ovate to ± orbiculate, 2-5 × 2-4 cm, base rounded, truncate, or ± lobed, margins entire or ciliate, plane, surfaces smooth-papillate, rough, scabrous, glabrous or sparsely puberulent. Inflorescences panicles, 4-7-branched; immature inflorescence pendent or ascending, branches spreading, axis 1-3 cm, 1+ mm diam., densely glandular, (sticky); bracts appressed, (glaucous), scalelike, deltate, 3-4 mm, apex acute to acuminate, surfaces viscid-glandular (rarely minutely stipitate-glandular) or glandular-hairy, especially along margins. Pedicels 6-10 mm, finely to densely glandular-hairy. Flowers: corolla white, conic to urceolate; ovary glabrous or glandular-hairy. Fruits depressed-globose, 6-8 mm diam., glabrous or sparsely to densely glandular-hairy, (sometimes viscid). Stones distinct.

Arctostaphylos viscida is distributed widely in the Sierra Nevada and northern Coast Ranges of California and the Cascade Mountains in southern Oregon. The subspecies occasionally occur in mixed populations, especially subspp. viscida and mariposa.