Shrubs, 2–6(–10) dm, herbage strigose, with appressed medifixed hairs. Stems 15–150, stiffly erect; bark dark russet, becoming gray, striate; long shoots divaricately and oppositely branched, short shoots present; unarmed (stiff dead branches resembling thorns). Leaves persistent (drought deciduous), cauline, opposite and clustered on short shoots; stipules persistent on distal leaf-base margins, deltate-lanceolate, margins entire; petiole obscure; blade oblanceolate-spatulate, 0.6–1.2 cm, thickened, leathery, margins thick, rounded (not revolute), entire. Inflorescences terminal ?on long-and short-shoot spurs?, flowers solitary; bracts present, ?reduced, leaflike?. Pedicels reduced. Flowers 11–14 mm diam.; epicalyx bractlets 0; hypanthium campanulate, 1–2 mm; sepals 4 (rarely 5), weakly spreading, ?abaxially yellow?, outer narrowly ovate, inner broadly ovate, ?margins thin?; petals usually 0, infrequently 1–4(or 5) on scattered flowers, ?caducous?, translucent yellow, spatulate; stamens (16–)20–25(–30), equal to sepals; torus extending into tubelike sheath surrounding ovary and proximal style (interior sericeous, exterior bearing some stamens); carpels 1 (rarely 2), glabrous except at style base, styles lateral, ?exserted beyond sheath, sericeous most of length?; ovule 1, ?lateral?. Fruits achenes, 1(–2), ?brown?, ovoid-reniform, distally narrower, 5.3–5.8 mm, ?shiny?, glabrous; hypanthium persistent; sepals persistent, ascending. x = 8.
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