Shrubs, prostrate or mat-forming, 0.2-1.5 m; burl absent; twigs gray-hairy. Leaves: petiole 3-5 mm, (eglandular); blade bright green, shiny, oblanceolate, 1.5-2 × 0.5-1 cm, base cuneate, margins entire, plane, surfaces smooth, ± puberulent, glabrescent . Inflorescences panicles, 1-3-branched; immature inflorescence pendent, (branches compact), axis 0.5-1 cm, 1+ mm diam., gray-hairy; bracts appressed, scalelike (basalmost leaflike), awl-shaped, (concave when fresh), 3-4 mm, apex acute, surfaces glabrous. Pedicels 2-6 mm, glabrous. Flowers: corolla white to pink, urceolate; ovary canescent. Fruits globose, 6-8 mm diam., glabrous. Stones distinct. 2n = 26.

Flowering winter-early spring. Maritime chaparral, serpentine soils; of conservation concern; 0-100 m; Calif.

Formerly found in the northwestern portions of San Francisco, Arctostaphylos franciscana is now extirpated from the wild and survives only in cultivation.

Arctostaphylos franciscana is in the Center for Plant Conservation´s National Collection of Endangered Plants as A. hookeri subsp. franciscana.