Plants 50-300 cm. Stems erect to ascending, green when young, fastigiately branched, glabrous, resinous. Leaves ascending to spreading; blades linear to narrowly oblanceolate (terete or adaxially sulcate), 12-35 × 0.5-1.5 mm, midnerves obscure, apices acute, often mucronate, faces glabrous or moderately hairy, gland-dotted (in circular, deep pits), resinous; axillary fascicles of 4-10 leaves, shorter than subtending leaves. Heads in racemiform to thyrsiform-paniculiform arrays (to 30 × 3-12 cm). Peduncles 3-30 mm (leafy). Involucres subcampanulate, 5-8 × 3.5-5.5 mm. Phyllaries 20-26 in 4-6 series, tan, ovate to lanceolate or oblong, 3-7 × 1-1.8 mm, unequal, mostly chartaceous, outermost ± herbaceous-appendaged, midnerves thickened, darker resin ducts, slightly expanded apically, (margins membranous, fimbriate, especially distally) apices erect, acuminate to cuspidate, inner and mid acute to acuminate, abaxial faces usually glabrous, resinous . Ray florets 3-10; laminae 5.5-7 × 1.5-2 mm. Disc florets 11-25; corollas 5-8 mm. Cypselae tan to brown, subobovoid, 3.5-5 mm, glabrous or moderately hairy, more densely distally; pappi off-white to brown, 6-7.5 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering late summer-fall(-spring). Open, sandy to stony soils in chaparral, oak woodland, or scrub in near coastal communities; of conservation concern; 100-1800 m; Calif.; Mexico (Baja California).

Ericameria pinifolia ranges from Ventura County to northern Baja California. It blooms primarily in late summer and fall; it sometimes produces scattered, larger flowering heads in spring.