Habit: woody plant with subterranean shoots at least 1–2 m long; aerial shoots less than 10 cm high, sprawling, mat-forming. Leaves: seedling leaves 7–9 x 5 mm, broad-obovate (to almost oval), apices acute to tridentate, essentially sessile; adult leaves 10–14 x 4.5 mm, appearing whorled, aerial stems densely clothed, usually narrow-elliptic, apices long acuminate with upturned mucro, margins thickened, flat or slightly incurving (at apices), petioles twisted, thick, winged to base, glossy green, both leaf surfaces glabrescent, abaxial surface with white pellucid spots. Inflorescences usually bisexual, rarely pistillate, solitary or paired flowers; flower stalks 4.6 mm long, angular, rather villous; tiny involucral bracts present at base of peduncle, plus several leaf like bracts to 4 mm, caducous. Sepals 4 mm long, narrowly triangular, with acuminate apices and reaching almost half way up the petal, margins with occasional hairs, green, spreading from base. Petals 6–8 mm long; creamy-green in bud opening creamy white tinged pink at apices, spreading from base. Stamens: filaments tapering from base to apex; anthers triangular, less than 1 mm long; apices acute; initially yellow, then brown and caduceus, pollen yellow?; one stand seen with vestigial staminodes. Pistil stipitate with a thick, darker green basal nectary; ovary noticeably flattened, green, glabrous; style slightly elongated to 1–2 mm in female phase, stigma insignificant but eventually slightly capitate. Fruit capsule-like but indehiscent, eventually woody, very flattened with an outer skin, usually 2-locular, rarely 3; papery liner surrounds seeds, similar to Billardiera. Seeds 1–2 mm long, few per loculus, 3-6 maximum per fruit; red-brown, angular, reniform, rugulose or wrinkled. Flowers early summer; fruits often persist from one year to the next.
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