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Mericarps glabrous or shortly pubescent, oblong, deeply excavate on the commissural face, and with 2 longitudinal combs of spines on the flat dorsal face, one on either side; spines (6)8–11(14), conical, straight ± curved or hooked, united for ¼ to ¾ of their length by a hyaline membrane, or sometimes all nearly free, when the membrane is well developed the mericarps seem to be winged on each side of the dorsal face; dorsal face transversally ridged; lateral face strongly ribbed, the ribs sometimes somewhat reticulate; the commissure bordered by a hyaline membrane.
Leaves 2–10 × l.3–8 cm, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acute or subobtuse at the apex, subtruncate or rounded then cuneate at the base into a 0.9–4.5 cm long petiole, crenate-serrate or serrate on the lateral margins with 10–17 teeth on each side, entire on the basal margin, puberulous with short hooked hairs interspersed with longer tubercle based bristles on the upper surface, the indumentum similar but denser on the lower surface particularly on the midrib and nerves.
Racemes slender, 9–17 cm long with young flowers densely spaced towards the apex, and the progressively older flowers becoming more laxly spaced towards the base on the elongating axis; rhachis eventually up to 55 cm long; pedicels erect in flower and up to 0.75–1 mm long and reflexed in fruit; bracts 2–3 mm long, linear-lanceolate.
Herb, up to 1 m high. Leaves 25 mm wide, distinctly petiolate, with teeth acute and sharp. Fruiting calyx conspicuously inflated. Cocci echinate, with 2 parallel longitudinal rows of spines, spines connected by firm membranes to form 2 spreading shelf-like fans on mature cocci. Flowers white with purple markings.
Calyx persistent; tube 5–6 mm long, truncate with 5 small teeth at the apex, densely puberulous with short hooked hairs interspersed with a few longer tubercle based bristles, becoming inflated and subspherical with a narrowed beak-like apex in fruit.
Corolla usually white or sometimes pale pink or pale mauve with purple or red lines on the lower lip, not persistent; tube ± twice as long as the calyx, glabrous outside, hairy within; lobes c. 5 × 2 mm, rounded at the apex.
Stems and branches square, pubescent with fine short spreading hooked hairs or glabrescent, internodes up to c. 10 cm long; nodes with a transverse band of acicular setae on the faces between pairs of opposite petioles.
Perennial, rather weak erect or straggling herb 0.30–2 m tall, with 1–several herbaceous stems from a woody rootstock, branching from the base.
Filaments hairy, c. 1 mm long in the lower stamens, c. 1.5 mm long in the upper pair; anthers c. 0.5 mm long.
Style 4–4.5 mm long at anthesis, persisting and elongating in fruit, included within the inflated calyx.
Schizocarp ± round in outline, 3–4 mm long and 4.5 mm wide.
