Dwarf perennial; rootstock tuberous often greatly elongated, 1.25–2.5 cm in diameter; stems 1–3, occasionally more, produced underground, to 7–10 cm long and 0.5–2 cm in diameter; branches 6–9, in clusters from each stem apex, produced at about ground level, 4–6 cm long, 2.5–4 mm in diameter, cylindric and covered in small tubercules, rebranching on older plants and eventually forming rounded clumps to c. 50 cm in diameter; tubercules elongated, 5–8 mm long with a prominent white apex c. 1 mm wide.Leaves 5–30 × 2 mm, linear, fleshy, crowded towards the branch tips.Cyathia produced towards the branch tips on non-persistent peduncles 5–10 mm long; bracts 3–8, obovate-oblong, scale-like, deciduous.Cyathia 3 × 4 mm with cup-shaped involucres, glabrous; glands 2–2.5 × 1 mm, transversely elliptic, outer margins with 2–5 entire or bifid processes to 1 mm long, greenish-white often spotted with red; lobes 1 × 1.5 mm, rounded, ciliate.Male flowers: bracteoles 2 mm long, laciniate; stamens 3 mm long.Female flower: ovary glabrous; styles united for 2–2.5 mm, stigmas short, spreading.Capsule c. 5 mm in diameter, obtusely lobed, sessile.Seeds 3.5 × 2.8 mm, ovoid with truncate base and pointed apex, with scarcely prominent warts, greyish-brown.
