stem short and thick, subsimple; leaves fascicled on wartlike abortive ramuli and at the apex of the stem, small, terete, furrowed above, acute or mucronate; peduncles divaricately multifid, sub-dichotomous or zig-zag, persistent; flowers on long, slender, rigid, spreading pedicels, suberect; pedicels, calyx and corolla viscoso-puberulous; tube of the corolla thrice as long as the calyx, limb short, reflexed, pubescent within. Stem 6–8 inches high, 1–2 inches in diameter, simple or once or twice divided, smooth or covered with wartlike abortive branchlets. Leaves 2–4 lines long, 1 line in diameter, almost fusiform, several in a tuft. Peduncles very numerous and much branched, intricately interlaced (many of them barren?), hardening after the fall of the flowers and persistent as a mop of much branched, spreading spines. The young parts are viscidulous, the older glabrous. Corolla 4–5 lines long, pale. A very remarkable plant.
