Prostrate, much-branched fleshy herb with slightly tuberous roots; stems with many short, stout, articulated internodes completely clothed in papery whitish scales, older stems hard, sprawling and rooting adventitiously. Leaves opposite, very fleshy, narrowly lanceolate, 4–5 mm long, ± 1 mm wide, acute, present among the scales on younger branches, soon caducous; nodal scales in dense overlapping whorls, longer than the internodes so the whole plant appears silvery-white, broadly lanceolate, mostly with a lightly keeled midrib, 3.5–6 mm long, 1.5–3 mm wide at the base, obtuse. Flowers inconspicuous at the branch tips, 1–2 sunk among the scales and small involucral leaves. Sepals broadly ovate, 3.8–4.5 mm long, connate and hyaline in the lower third; petals 4, pale yellow, 2–3 mm long; stamens 8–10; stigma 5–6-branched. Capsule membranous with the seeds visible through the wall, dehiscing 1/4 up from the base, lid broadly cylindrical with rounded top, 2 mm high; seeds reniform, 0.4 mm long, brown, testa cells domed, the marginal cell-walls indiscernable. Fig. 1/1–5 (p. 6).