A bushy leafless spiny succulent, 5–20 in. high. Stems or branches 3–5 lin. thick (dried), 3–5- (rarely 7-) angled; angles sometimes very prominent, compressed (in dried specimens), with deep notches, forming triangular teeth (? tubercles when alive) nearly as long as broad, sometimes but slightly prominent and more rib-like, with slightly raised teeth, each margined with a horny grey linear shield having a short lobe on each side at its apex, bearing 1 straight needle-like spine 1/3–1 1/4 in. long with a pair of prickles 1/2–1 1/2 lin. long at its base. Cymes small, solitary in the axils of the teeth, with 3 involucres, subsessile. Bracts scale-like, about 2/3 lin. long, ovate or suborbicular, concave, obtuse, minutely toothed. Involucre 1 3/4–2 lin. in diam., perhaps larger when alive, broadly funnel-shaped, glabrous, with the glands united into an entire or 5–6-lobed spreading rim, rarely partly free, surrounding 5–6 transversely rectangular or subquadrate fringed lobes. Ovary not exserted in the specimens seen, glabrous; styles 3/4 lin. long, very shortly united at the base, slender, entire and slightly thickened at the apex. Capsule and seeds not seen.
