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Multi-stemmed shrub or small tree, much-branched; occurring in coastal bush and bushveld, often in dense stands. Branchlets with paired, straight spines, sometimes apparently absent. Leaves well developed but not yet mature at time of flowering, opposite or clustered on reduced lateral shoots, oval to obovate, up to 38 x 25 mm, almost hairless to densely hairy below, dark green; venation whitish, translucent when viewed against the light; apex rounded; petiole up to 3 mm long. Flowers functionally unisexual, in axillary groups of 2 or 3, up to 20 mm in diameter, white fading cream to yellow. Fruit borne on a stalk more than 10 mm long, hard, oval, up to 25 mm long, crowned with the persistent remains of the calyx, yellow-green to brown.
Calyx glabrous to densely pubescent with shaggy hairs; tube in male/hermaphrodite flowers 1.5–2 mm long: tube in female/hermaphrodite flowers 2.5–4 mm long; limb-tube in male/hermaphrodite flowers 2.5–3 × 4–5 mm distinctly wider than tube, limb-tube in female/hermaphrodite flowers 2.5–4 × 3.5–4 mm long, scarcely wider than tube; lobes rounded or very infrequently shortly acuminate at apex, (0)1(3)-nerved, clearly separated by wide sinuses, in male/hermaphrodite flowers 5 or more, 0.5–5 mm long, tooth-like, oblong, somewhat spathulate, or rarely spathulate and close together, lobes in female/hermaphrodite flowers 5, oblong to spathulate, 1.75–4 mm long.
A several-stemmed much-branched spiny shrub or small tree 1.5–7(9) m tall; young stems slender, not or only faintly lenticellate, ± glabrous to pubescent, older branches never robust; bark white-grey or fawn, ± flaky; spines virtually absent (from some specimens if not plants) or when present are borne above cushion shoots or more often brachyblasts, single and alternate or sometimes opposite and decussate, small when young but up to 3.2 cm long on mature stems, frequently developing into fertile branches; brachyblasts developing into branched fertile branches.
Leaves not fully mature at time of flowering; blades 2.4–5.5(10) × 1.4–3.2(5) cm, obovate to obovate-spathulate, usually ± rounded at the apex, rarely acute, mostly very attenuate to the base, glabrous to pubescent on both surfaces; lateral nerves in 3–4(5) main pairs; tertiary nerves finely reticulate, clearly apparent even in pubescent forms; domatia present as conspicuous hairy tufts; petiole 5–10 mm long, only gradually distinct from leaf base; stipules 3–4 mm long, triangular, soon falling.
Inflorescence stalks glabrous to densely pubescent, with bracts and bractlets inconspicuous: male/hermaphrodite inflorescences (1)2–4(7)-flowered, peduncle 1–3 mm long, with branches absent or 5–10 mm long and pedicels 5–12 mm long, slender: female/hermaphrodite inflorescences 1(2)-flowered with pedicels 3–5 mm long, not slender.
Corolla white or yellowish-white, usually turning yellow, densely silky outside, the hairs on the tube much longer than those on the lobes; tube 4–5 mm, exceeding calyx limb-tube by 1–3 mm; lobes 5–9 × 4–8 mm, obovate, oblong-obovate or ± round, finely pubescent at least near the margins inside.
Fruits yellow-green to brown, 1.8–2.6 × 1.7–2.2 cm, broadly ellipsoid or ± globose, wrinkled, glabrescent or finely tomentose; calyx limb persistent with lobes 3–7 × c. 3 mm, mostly spathulate; fruit stalk 1–2 cm long.
Flowers sweet-scented, male, female and/or hermaphrodite, subterminal on the short lateral branches or spurs.
Anthers 2.25–3 mm long; style projecting beyond corolla throat for 1–1.5 mm; pollen presenter 2.5–3 mm long.
