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A soft succulent herb. It grows about 40 cm high. It keeps growing from year to year. It grows near the waters edge. It spreads 1-1.5 m wide. The branches lie along the ground and the young branches are slender. It forms loose open mats. The stems have joints. The leaves are reduced to scales. The segments are 1 cm long by 0.6 cm wide and barrel shaped. They are grey or red. The spikes are 2 cm long. The flowers are mainly female. The flowers are in clusters of 3. The fruit are spongy with a horny outer surface.
Fruiting spikes cylindrical or somewhat thicker in middle, built up of numerous closely imbricate, ring-like, thickened and corky fertile segments, their margins 1.5–4 mm. apart, completely hiding the fruits; the segments finally disarticulating and falling away, leaving often a projecting bristle-like axis.
Main stems prostrate, up to at least 40 cm. long, becoming longer when older and forming loose open mats; lateral branches numerous ascending or erect, about 10–30 cm. high, fertile or sterile.
Anthers very rarely visible, but sometimes a single often apparently non-functional stamen occurs with the ovary.
Flowering spikes about 1–4 cm. long and 4–5 mm. in diam., with the flowers (except for the stigmas) hidden.
Flowers deeply embedded in and fused to the segment of the spike above each cluster.
Sterile segments about 5–11 mm. long and 3–6 mm. in diam.
Fruiting calyces spongy and thickened, about 3×2 mm.
Seeds smooth.
