Succulent spiny shrub or small tree to 2–6 m tall, with a crown of spreading-ascending branches.Branches 1–2 m long, (3)5(6)-angled, constricted into segments up to 25 × 3–4 cm; angles ± winged, with wings 7–15 mm deep and shallowly sinuate, the tubercles 1–1.75 cm apart along the margins.Spine shields joined in a grey, horny margin c. 2–3 mm wide; spines 5–8 mm long, fairly stout.Leaves 5 mm long, ovate, deciduous.Cymes 1–3 in a horizontal line 5 mm above the spines, simple, with lateral cyathia vertically arranged; peduncles and cyme branches 1–2 mm long; bracts subquadrate, scale-like.Cyathia c. 3 × 4–5 mm with cup-shaped involucres; glands transversely oblong, 2–2.5 mm wide, greenish-yellow; lobes 1.25 × 1.25 mm, subquadrate, fimbriate.Male flowers: bracteoles 3 mm long, laciniate; stamens 5 mm long.Female flower: styles 1.5 mm long, joined to halfway, apices bifid.Capsule 4 × 6–7 mm, obtusely lobed, exserted on a recurved pedicel c. 6 mm long.Seeds subglobose, c. 2.25 × 2 mm, brown, smooth.