Shrubs, erect or mound-forming, 0.5-5 m; burl absent; twigs densely fine-hairy with long, gland-tipped hairs. Leaves: petiole to 2 mm; blade light green, dull, ovate, 2.5-4.5 × 1.5-2.5 cm, base auriculate-clasping, margins entire, plane, surfaces ± scabrous, sparsely glandular-puberulent. Inflorescences panicles, 4-6-branched; immature inflorescence pendent, (branches densely clustered, sessile), axis 1-1.5 cm, 1+ mm diam., densely fine-hairy with long, gland-tipped hairs; bracts not appressed, leaflike, lanceolate, 6-9 mm, apex acuminate, surfaces finely glandular-hairy. Pedicels 5-6 mm, finely glandular-hairy. Flowers: corolla white, urceolate; ovary finely glandular-hairy. Fruits depressed-globose, 6-7 mm diam., glandular-hairy, (± viscid). Stones distinct. 2n = 26.

Flowering winter-early spring. Maritime chaparral; of conservation concern; 100-500 m; Calif.

Arctostaphylos montaraensis grows mostly on granitic rocks at Montara Mountain and sandstones at San Bruno Mountain, northern San Mateo County.