Compact, multi-stemmed, greyish shrub up to 1.5 m tall, spinescent, glabrous. Branches terete, greyish brown, with sunken lenticels; brachyblasts axillary. Spines slender, straight, up to 15 mm long, rarely leafy or floriferous. Leaves nearly always fasciculate, rarely alternate, subsessile, coriaceous, glaucous, glabrous; lamina obovate, 4-20 x 2-4 mm, apex rounded to subemarginate, base cuneate, margin entire, venation inconspicuous above, prominent below: petiole ± 0.5 mm long. Stipules short, subulate, Inflorescence a dichasium, terminal or axillary, longer than leaves: peduncle 8-10 mm long, reddish brown; pedicels 5-7 mm long. Flowers 5-merous, few in each cyme. ± 7 mm in diameter. Sepals ± 1 mm long, triangular, margin laciniate. Petals ± 4 mm long, white, cream or occasionaly tinged pink, oblong, margin entire, recurved. Disc fleshy, annular, convex. Stamens 2.5 mm long: anthers 0.5 mm long. Ovary 3-locular; ovules 3-6 per locule; style 1.0-1.5 mm long; stigma 3-lobed. Capsules white to pink or red, obconic-trigonous, smooth. 6-10 mm long. Seeds 5 mm long, dark brown, completely enveloped by a well developed, orange aril.
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