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Leaf-lamina 7–10 × 3·5–11 cm., very broadly ovate or sub-circular, densely stellate-pubescent above, subtomentose below, apex subacute, rounded or broadly cuneate at the base, margin irregularly crenate, 5-nerved from the base; petiole up to 5 cm. long, somewhat channelled above, stellate-pubescent, with 3–5 pairs of discoid glands c. 1 mm. in diam. just below the lamina; stipules 5–6 mm. long, lanceolate-acuminate to broadly triangular, setose-pubescent.
A shrub that is creeping or lies along the ground. It has many hairy stems. It can be 1.5 m long and has a woody rootstock. The leaves are broad and can have 3 lobes. They are 8-9 cm long by 9.5-12 cm wide. They have teeth along the edge. There are 2 or 3 clusters of flowers. They are yellow. The fruit are 20-25 mm across. They are covered with up to 60 spines 5 mm long.
Flowers crowded several together, on short pedicels or subsessile; bracts up to 4 mm. long, broadly lanceolate to lanceolate, setose pubescent.
Ovary tuberculate with the tubercles terminated by 2 or 3 short setae, apparently 10-locular by the intrusion of 5 additional false septa.
Fruit blackish when ripe, c. 2 cm. in diam., globose, covered with hard conical glabrous processes or spinose bosses c. 5 mm. long.
Petals yellow, c. 1 × 0·5 cm., obovate, narrowing rather abruptly into a basal claw which is ciliate at the margins.
Sepals 10–12 mm. long, linear, with crowded scales outside, and a subapical blackish 2-dentate horn 1–1·5 mm. long.
Inflorescences of leaf-opposed cymes 1–2 together on short stout pubescent peduncles up to 5 mm. long.
Prostrate perennial with stellate-pubescent trailing sterns up to 1 m. long or ascending to 1·2 m.
Androgynophore with suborbicular glands; annulus with a shortly ciliate margin.
Stamens c. 25, c. 8 mm. long; style up to 5 mm. long, slender, glabrous.
