A woody branching shrub, leafless at the time of flowering. Branches alternate, subopposite or subverticellate, ascending to very widely spreading, moderately straight, 1–2 lin. thick, slightly tuberculate at the nodes with flower-scars 2/3–1 lin. in diam., not spine-tipped, glabrous, brown. Leaves not seen, probably small and very deciduous, leaving crescent-shaped scars. Involucres solitary, sessile along the branches in the axils of the leaf-scars, male or hermaphrodite, 1 1/2–2 1/4 lin. in diam., cup-shaped, with 5 glands and 5 subquadrate fringed lobes, glabrous outside, pubescent under the glands within, surrounded at the base by about 6 suborbicular or broadly ovate bud-scales, very obtuse or rounded at the apex, ciliate on the margin, with the outer much smaller and more coriaceous than the inner; glands 3/4–1 lin. in their greater diam., transversely elliptic-oblong, nearly straight on the inner margin, entire or faintly crenulate on the outer. Staminal bracteoles pubescent, but not conspicuously woolly. Ovary at first partly included and finally far exserted from the involucre on a slender recurved pedicel, subglobose, glabrous, with a very rudimentary calyx; styles 2/3– 3/4 lin. long, united for 1/3 of their length, then recurved-spreading, rather stout, shortly bifid at the apex. Capsule 1/3 in. in diam., with 3 rounded lobes as seen from above, exserted on a curved pedicel 1/4– 1/2 in. long, glabrous. Seeds 2 1/2 lin. long, ellipsoid, smooth, with a circular or mushroom-shaped caruncle, peltate on a very slender stalk.