Dense, broom-like perennial to 45 cm, glabrous or puberulent at base. Stems slender, much-branched in upper part. Leaves, at least the upper ones, usually scale-like, sometimes linear to narrowly elliptic, up to 15 (rarely 30) mm long. Inflorescence a lax cylindrical spike; flowers in clusters of 1-3; bracts ovate, with shallowly erose to denticulate white margins. Hypanthium 0.5-1.5 mm long. Sepals 0.6-0.9 mm long, yellow to greenish-yellow, shallowly erose. Corolla pale green, yellow or dark brown; tube 2.4-3.2 mm long; lobes 1-1.6 mm long, acute. Gynoecium 3-partite. Cocci usually 1, broadly obovoid to obpyriform-obovoid, curved towards axis, 2-3.3 mm long, rugose, sometimes obtusely tuberculate over distal two-thirds; basal cavity shallow to deep with thin rim extending distally exposing tongue of bony endocarp.
Often found in shallow sandy soil and limestone, sometimes in sand or clay or saline soil; grows in open woodland and hummock grassland on ephemeral swamp margins, plains and ridges.
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