Small xerophytic. shrub, 10-40 cm high, main stem short, succulent, up to 5 cm thick, branching repeatedly; lateral branches succulent, gnarled, with thorny remains of old inflorescences; bark green to yellow-green, smooth or coming off in papery flakes. Leaves in clusters at tips of lateral branches, fleshy, imparipinnate or pinnatisect, green to glaucous, sparsely covered with short prostrate hairs, petiole 1-6 cm long, adaxially grooved; lamina (2-)5(-6.5) x (1.5)2(-4.5) cm, with 1-4 pairs of pinnae and terminal pinna, rhachis adaxially grooved; pinnae (0.7-)1.5(-3.5) x (0.4-)0.5(-1.5) cm, oblongate-cuneate, margin of broad distal part irregularly toothed to pinnatipartite, apex obtuse, base gradually narrowed to long petiolule which is adaxially grooved, sometimes decurrent on the rhachis, stipules small, ±1 x 3 mm, broadly deltoid, membranous. Inflorescences at tips of lateral branches, paniculate, ±10-14 cm x 14-30 cm, much branched, peduncle 1-5 cm long, branches of inflorescence ending in a pseudo-umbel with 4-6 flowers each, branches of inflorescence sparsely covered with short prostrate hairs; bracts deltoid to lanceolate, ±3 x 1.5 mm, membranous. Flowers pedicellate; pedicel 0.5-2 cm long, sparsely hairy; nectar spur 2-6 mm long, sparsely hairy; sepals 5, lanceolate, 7-10 x 2-3 mm, acute, light green to brown with a white to pellucid margin, reflexed in old flower, sparsely hairy on the exterior; petals 5, white; posterior 2 ±12 x 3.5 mm, oblong with apex sometimes shallowly emarginate, base with reddish purple marks and crenate, or even auriculate margin; anterior 3 ±10 x 3 mm, oblong-cuneate, apex rotund; stamens 10,5 fertile and 5 sterile and reduced, filaments oblate, bases of filaments fused to form a column 1-3 mm in length around the ovary; fertile stamens of different lengths, ±3-8 mm long; staminodes ±2-4 mm long; pollen orange; gynoecium ±1 cm long; ovary conical, 5-lobate, densely woolly: style partly hairy; stigmas 5, ±3 mm long, reflexed.
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Stem-succulent, up to 1 m tall. Leaves bipinnatifid, up to 120 mm long, with ± terete succulent segments. Flowers 4-6 per cluster, in a much-branched inflorescence that becomes spiny, shortly pedicellate, ± 20 mm diam., petals 5, white, bases of upper 2 crisped, hypanthium ± 5 mm long.
Stem succulent to 1 m, with persistent, branched, spine-like remains of inflorescences. Leaves bipinnatifid with almost terete segments, succulent, to 12 cm long. Flowers 4-6, ± 20 mm diam., white; hypanthium ± 5 mm long, much shorter than pedicel.
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