Solitary, summer-deciduous, dwarf, single-stemmed, ascending plant up to 150 mm tall. Roots fibrous. Tuber oblong, up to 50 x 10 mm, radiating into 2-3 secondary tubers, pale grey-brown and somewhat flaking bark. Stem slender, more or less 2-4 mm in diameter, eventually branching from the stem well above the tuber; bark longitudinally fissured but persistent exposing the grey-green photosynthetic epidermis underneath; phyllopodia hardly visible, the upper few nodes striated with black on grey when young. Leaves softly succulent 3-5, apically produced, ascending spreading; blade linear-lanceolate to linear-elliptic, subterete, 10-22 x 2-4 mm; petiole indistinct, the adaxial surface grooved, surface green, reddish tipped, glabrous, becoming pustulate against a red background as leaf shrivels. Inflorescence a branched thyrse up 50-60 mm long, bearing 1-5 monochasia, each with 1-2 flowers; peduncle brownish-green becoming grey, 30-40 mm long, glandular pubescent, persistent when dry; pedicels 4-10 mm long. Bracts 3-5, linear, 2-3 x 0.5 mm, reddish-green, soon becoming yellowish and deciduous. Calyx glandular pubescent, brown and green, lobes 3 x 1 mm. Corolla ascending, glandular pubescent, tube narrowly-urceolate, 7 mm long, 3.5 mm at base narrowing to 2.5 mm at throat, cream sometimes greenish; lobes 2.5 x 1 mm, becoming recurved and laterally twisted, inner surface yellow sometimes greenish, glandular pubescent, also with longer multicellular hairs, apices acute. Stamens up to 3 mm long, attached to side of the corolla; anthers 1.8 mm long, slightly protruding. Squamae wedge-shaped emarginate, ascending, 1 x 0.4 mm, lobes diverging, greenish translucent. Gynoecium 7.5 mm long; carpels 5, free, ± 6 mm long, tapering into short styles 1.5 mm in length; stigma 0.5 mm long, exerted above stamens. Flowering time: February (Southern Hemisphere), July (Northern Hemisphere).
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