Shrub to 0.5 m high, pilose in leaf axils, otherwise glabrous, apparently dioecious. Branches brittle. Vegetative leaves narrowly fusiform, 5–8 mm long, fleshy, narrowed into a short flattened petiole. Floral leaves congested towards apex of branchless; lamina ellipsoidal, c. 3 mm long; petiole expanded around base of flower, adaxially silky pilose. Flowers solitary, unisexual. Perianth urceolate, glabrous, membranous; lobes erect, united, membranous, undulate and ciliate on margin. Male flower: stamens 5; pistillode with slender sparsely woolly style and short lobes. Female flower: staminodes absent; ovary glabrous; style stout, c. 1.5 mm long, woolly pilose; stigmas 2, slender, c. 2.5 mm long. Infructescence a condensed spike which eventually breaks from plant. Fruiting perianth urceolate, dorsiventrally compressed, 3.5–5 mm high, 2.5–4 mm wide, papery, glabrous, glossy; adaxial side flat; abaxial side convex; limb erect; attachment vertical, firmly attached to axis; spines 5, or 1 to 4 of the spines paired to give up to 9, slender, divaricate or descending, sometimes curved, 3–5 mm long, one on adaxial face, the others lateral and abaxial. Seed depressed; radicle ascending.
Home