Fibrous rooted succulent perennial, with numerous semi-prostrate and stoloniferous stems to 45 cm. long, sparsely branching; stems and branches sharply 4-angled, 5–8 mm. thick, dark green irregularly blotched with dark purplish green; angles with shallow teeth to 1.3 cm. apart.. Spinescence black; spine-shields slender, 1.5–3 mm. long above the spines, decurrent to 10 mm. and to just above or touching the flowering eye below, often forming a continuous horny margin; spines slender to 10 mm. long; prickles 0.5–2.5 mm. long.. Leaves deltoid, 1.5 mm. long, purplish.. Cymes solitary, simple and bisexual or 1-forked, subsessile, all parts deep crimson; bracts subquadrate ± 1.5 mm. long.. Cyathia ± 2.5 × 6.5 mm., with broadly funnel-shaped involucres; glands transversely rectangular, ± 1.5 × 3 mm., contiguous; lobes transversely elliptic, 1.5 × 2.5 mm.. Male flowers: bracteoles spathulate, dentate; stamens 3 mm. long.. Female flower: styles 2.5 mm. long, joined at the base, apices thickened, rugulose.. Capsule sessile, obtusely 3-lobed, ± 3 × 4 mm.. Seeds subglobose, 2 × 1.75 mm., brownish grey, surface shallowly tuberculate.
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