Shrubs with erect branches, to 60 cm high and 50 cm in diameter. Long shoots with brown internodes up to 8 mm long, short shoots with internodes at most to 2 mm long, each with four prickles, one pair derived from the central veins of the opposite leaf-pair, the second, decussate pair of prickles derived from tissue separating the two leaves as part of the basal leaf sheath; prickles persisting for many years. Leaves trigonous to triquetrous, 8 mm long, 2 mm wide, 6 mm thick, thickest at the prominently truncate apex. Flowers solitary, 6 subequal calyx lobes, diameter 17-20 mm, petals 30-40, purple inside, the outside chalky-white suffused, filamentous staminodes 3-10, together with the stamens at first in a column, spreading widely later and developing into a stamen-carpet flower; stamens 50-75. Pedicels of the ripe fruit stout, turning woody after the capsules proper have fallen off, the capsule base broadly funnel-shaped, 5-6 mm in diameter, 6 locules.
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