Succulent tree to 7 m high; trunk cylindric, fairly slender, spiny above, with up to 9 angles and a crown of verticillate, spreading branches, curving upwards.Branches 2–5-winged, constricted into variably shaped segments 2.5–5 cm wide; wings very thin, margins prominently to obscurely crenate, usually distinctly wavy, with crenations 10–25 mm apart; ultimate branchlets often 2-winged, produced in whorls.Spine shields extremely narrow, usually separate, sometimes extended above to enclose the flowering eye 3–5 mm above the spine pairs; spines to 7.5 mm long; prickles minute.Leaves rudimentary, ovate-acute, recurved, withered remains usually persistent.Cymes solitary; peduncles and cyme branches very stout, c. 2.5 × 4 mm; bracts c. 4 × 7 mm, broadly ovate, usually split to the base.Cyathia to 4.5 × 10 mm, with broadly funnel-shaped involucres; glands 5–5.5 mm wide, transversely narrowly elliptic, spreading, rugulose, yellow; lobes broadly elliptic, irregularly dentate.Male flowers c. 60: fascicular bracts c. 4 mm long, laciniate; stamens c. 5.5 mm long.Female flower: perianth 3-lobed, lobes 1.5 mm long, sometimes with 1–2 teeth; styles to 3 mm long, free almost to the base, spreading recurved.Capsule 8.5–9.5 × 19–23 mm, deeply lobed, exserted on a stout pedicel c. 7 mm long.Seed c. 3.75 mm in diameter, subglobose.
