Erect chamaephyte ±300 mm high with ascending branches. Rhizome typical, woody, with hard terete roots. Stems erect, minutely pubescent, deep yellow when young, darker with age. Branches ascending, bearing the short divergent side branches and branchlets close together, all ending in a hard spine. Lateral branches 1-3 from a node, short, the basal part pubescent (similar to stem and branch), the upper part a smooth spine, 4-8 mm long, thin aspinous branchlets bearing cladodes also present. Bracts membranous, shiny, apiculate, dentate. Cladodes fascicled, glabrous or setulose, few to many, placed at junction of pubescent and smooth areas of spine. Flowers 1-3, erect, beside a cladode fascicle, next to base of smooth spine; tepals narrowly elliptic, ±4 mm long, white; stalk ±1 mm long, disc broadened at or near base of perianth. Stamens with yellow anthers. Ovary with 4 ovules in each locule; brown to black, obovoid; style short with 3 short stigmas. Berry black, ±5 mm in diameter, perianth persistent.
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