a shrub, up to 4–5 ft. high with a ball-shaped bole rising little above the ground and densely spinous branches, 3–4 lin. thick, succulent, glabrous, covered with a thin, papery, greyish bark; leaves subsessile, obovate to obovate-elliptic, acute, constricted towards the base, with spinulous margins, 1 1/2–3 in. long, 3/4–1 1/2 in. broad, thin when dried, glabrous with the exception of the sparingly hairy midrib; stipules spiny, strong, up to 1 1/2 in. long; cymes sessile, several-flowered, contracted; pedicels hardly any; calyx 2 1/2 lin. long; sepals ovate, acutely acuminate; corolla white, tinged with pink; tube 1 1/4–1 1/2 in. long, narrow below the stamens (for 5–6 lin.), widened above them, then attenuate towards the mouth, hairy within; lobes obliquely obovoid, much narrowed at the base, almost 1 in. long and wide; follicles spindle-shaped, 5 in. long; seeds about 3 lin. long, ovate in outline, coma 1–1 1/2 in. long. null
