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Spiny succulent dwarf shrublet to 33 cm high; rootstock tuberous fleshy, merging into a short stem with numerous rhizomatous branches arising densely at and below ground level, giving rise to further plantlets and forming clumps to 1 m in diameter.
Spine shields c. 7 × 1.5 mm, narrowly obovate, decurrent to ± halfway to the flowering eye below, dark greyish-brown; spines 5–12 mm long, widely diverging; prickles rudimentary or to 1 mm long, c. 1.5 mm above the spines.
Cyathia 2 × 3 mm, with cup-shaped involucres; glands 1–2 mm wide, transversely oblong, bright yellow; lobes 1.5 mm wide, broadly elliptic, denticulate.
Branches to 30 cm long or more, rebranching, (3)4(5)-angled, to 1 cm in diameter; angles with prominent tubercles c. 1 cm apart along the margins.
Female flower: styles 2–2.5 mm long, joined at the base, apices minutely bifid.
Cymes solitary, simple, subsessile; bracts c. 1.5 × 1 mm, oblong.
Male flowers: bracteoles 2 mm long, fimbriate; stamens 3 mm long.
Capsule obtusely lobed, c. 3 × 4 mm, sessile.
Seeds ovoid, c. 2.25 × 1.5 mm, verrucose.
Leaves 1 × 1.5 mm, deciduous.
