Small rigid shrub to 25 cm high forming colonies several metres in diameter, dioecious. Branches spinescent, divaricate, glabrous (pubescent in leaf axils). Leaves opposite (to alternate) in disjunct fascicles, ovate to triangular, 1–4 mm long, carinate, fleshy, glabrous, the larger ones spurred at base. Flowers in upper leaf-axils. Male flowers cup-shaped; tepals obovate, united in lower third, c. 2 mm long, ciliate; anthers exserted; pistillode slender, c. 1 mm long, pubescent. Female flowers globular; tepals sub-orbicular, ± free, c. 1 mm long, thin, ciliate; staminodes absent; ovary pubescent; stigmas c. 3 mm long. Fruit sub-globular, c. 3 mm high surrounded by persistent perianth; pericarp crustaceous.
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