A shrub up to 2 m tall. Shoots often modified into spines. Leaves 2-6 cm long, 3-6 mm broad, lanceolate-linear, obtuse, with peltate and stellate scales, especially on the lower surface. Male flowers in clusters at the base of the shoot, 2.5 mm long; tepals free, suborbicular, with peltate scales on the dorsal surface; stamens free, sessile, anthers about 1.2-1.5 mm long. Female flowers in clusters of 2-4, pedicellate; pedicel c. 2.5 mm long, slender; tepals 3-4 mm long, united, acute, stellately hairy within; ovary c. 2.5 mm long, ovoid, enclosed in the hypanthium and covered by a thin membrane, style linear, as long as or longer than the ovary, base stellately hairy. Utricle subglobose, 6-7 mm broad, succulent, orange coloured. Seed solitary, 4 mm long, unequally bilobed, light black, shiny.

Antitussive, blood purifier and expectorant.

Plants for a Future

For treating burns, eczema and radiation injury, stomach and intestinal diseases (oil); in the treatment of disorders of the lungs, inflammation of the pulmonary tract, difficulty in expelling phlegm and coagulation and clotting of the blood (fruit)