Trees or shrubs , 2-6 m. Leaves 3-8 × 1.5-4.5 cm; blade elliptic, ovate, or oblong; margins entire; apex usually rounded. Flowers: petals 2-3 cm. Capsules curved, 7-10 cm. Seeds 2.5-3 mm.

Flowering spring-early summer (Apr-Jul). Brushy slopes; less than 600 m; Calif.

Dendromecon harfordii grows only on the Channel Islands. Plants with paler leaves from the southern islands (extant on Santa Catalina Island, once present on San Clemente Island) have been called D . rigida var. rhamnoides (Greene) Munz [= D . rigida Bentham subsp. rhamnoides (Greene) Thorne] and are considered to be of conservation concern.