A large tree, with leafless spiny succulent branches. Young unbranched plants 6 in. in diam., 8-angled, becoming branched and cylindric and woody with age; main branches whorled, frequently 8-angled, with alternate branchlets all curved-ascending, forming a large obconic flat-topped crown; branchlets with numerous constrictions, forming broad rounded scollops to the wing-like angles; margin of the scollops apparently even. Spines in groups of 5, “four on the sides and one in the centre, scarce half an inch long, fragile and of no resistance, but exceedingly sharp and pointed” (Bruce), but in the figure represented as being in pairs and widely diverging. Cymes crowded at the top of the branchlets. Involucres with 5 transversely elliptic yellow glands. Capsule with a distinct fleshy 3-lobed calyx at its base, exserted on a stout pedicel, 3-angled, glabrous, at first green, becoming deep crimson streaked with white, apparently with thick woody cell-walls. Seeds globose.