Erect or straggling shrub to 3 m tall; stems very densely tomentose, the pubescence with an ochraceous cast, of variously stalked, often dendritic, sub-echinoid stellae with long and torulose radii, and also of scattered hairs bearing one very long arm, armed with short (5 mm long), stout-based recurved spines. Leaves thick, 4-15 cm long, ovate, rhombic or obovate, often almost as broad as long, typically acute apically, basally long-acuminate, encompassing the petiole almost to the base, the leaves thus subsessile, the margins entire or usually shallowly angular-sinuate, both surfaces with dispersed, stalked pauciradiate non-porrect stellae. Inflorescence lateral, a short raceme, sometimes subumbellate; peduncle short with long-stalked and hydroid bristles, some of these dendritic; pedicels 2 cm long, slender, villous. Flowers very small; calyx 4 mm long, lobed about 1/2 the way down, the lobes narrowly lanceolate to subulate and bearing prominent dendritic-hydroid bristles; corolla white, 8-11 mm across, lobed '/2 the way down; stamens equal, the filaments very short (0.2 mm long), glabrous, the anthers 3-4 mm long, elongate-attenuate, opening by relatively large terminal pores and sometimes ultimately by longitudinal slits; style sometimes pubescent. Fruit a juicy, red, shiny berry 5 mm across; seeds 1.5-2 mm across, lenticular, orange, foveate.
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A small thorny shrub. It grows 1 m tall. It is loosely spreading. It has a yellow coating. The flowers are white. The fruit are round and bright red.
A weedy species of open fields and pastures, roadsides, or other disturbed areas; at elevations up to 900 metres.
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It is a tropical plant. It grows in the humid lowlands.
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