It is endemic to Santa Barbara County, California, where it can be found along the immediate coastline, including the vicinity of Refugio State Beach, and into the Santa Ynez Mountains of the northwestern Transverse Ranges.

[2] Arctostaphylos refugioensis is a plant of the coastal sage and chaparral on sandstone soils.

Its branches are covered in long, gland-tipped bristles and a dense foliage of oblong greenish to deep red leaves.

Each leaf is dull, waxy, and often bristly in texture, smooth or toothed along the edges, and up to 4.5 centimeters long.

The fruit is a spherical to oval red drupe with a pointed end, measuring at least a centimeter long.