Twigs sparsely short-hairy and densely glandular-hairy. Leaf blade surfaces ± finely tomentose, densely glandular-hairy, ± papillate abaxially. Immature inflorescence axes densely glandular-hairy. Ovaries white-hairy, sparsely glandular.

Flowering winter-early spring. Island chaparral; of conservation concern; 100-600 m; Calif.

Subspecies subcordata is known from Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands. Occasional mainland glandular-hairy individuals occur in mixed populations with subsp. crustacea and may key to subsp. subcordata.