Perennial with thick fleshy roots.Stems succulent, glabrous, branching from the base, 10–60 cm high, erect or shortly decumbent and rooting, 1.5–3 cm in diameter, cylindrical, marked with ± rhomboid tessellations (with a diamond-shaped pattern of flattened tubercles); tubercles c. 1.5 × 1 cm, with circular leaf scars at the apices; leaf scars 2 mm in diameter with a narrow ± horny rim around the base.Leaves subsessile, crowded towards the stem and branch apices, to 9 × 4 cm, obovate, fleshy, minutely puberulous, margins often ± crisped, sometimes flushed reddish; stipules on young growth modified into a cluster of 3–5 soft spines 0.5–2 mm long which soon shrivel.Cymes axillary, simple; peduncles 5–8 mm long; cyme branches 2–4 mm long, minutely puberulous; bracts joined in a bract-cup c. 7 × 7 mm, shortly notched between acute lobes and prominent midribs, minutely puberulous, often tinged pinkish.Cyathia c. 4 × 3.5 mm, with cup-shaped involucres; gland c. 2 mm high, cream with yellow rim; lobes 1 × 1.5 mm, rounded, denticulate.Male flowers: bracteoles 2.5 mm long, laciniate; stamens 4 mm long.Female flower: perianth 3-lobed, 2.5 mm in diameter; styles 1.5 mm long, joined at the base, deeply bifid at the apex.Capsule c. 6 × 6 mm, obtusely lobed, with a pair of fleshy crested ridges along the sutures, exserted on a reflexed pedicel to 8 mm long.Seeds c. 3.75 × 1.75 mm, oblong, 4-angled, minutely and shallowly verrucose, pale brownish-grey; caruncle cap-shaped, 1 mm in diameter, shortly stipitate.
