A suberect or trailing. glabrous much-branched spiny semisucculent shrub or subshrub up to 60 cm tall. Branches terete or obscuely angular, c. 1 cm thick, greyish. Stem-leaves alternate, stipulate, subsessile. Leaf-blades obovate to oblanceolate, 1-6 x 0.5-2 cm, obtuse, mucronate, tapered to the base, entire, lateral nerves c. 15 pairs, bright or dark green above, paler beneath. Stipules spiny, 1-2 cm long, arising from separate spine-shields, pale grey. Cyathia in axillary pedunculate ‘cymes’ towards the tips of the branches; peduncles up to 6.5 cm long; cyathia 2-4 (-8) per ‘cyme’, each subtended by 2 raylet-leaves, or cyathophylls. Cyathophylls transversely ovate-auborbicular, 4-8 x 5-10 mm, obtuse to rounded, mucronate, scarlet above, pinkish beneath, or pale creamy-yellow. Glands transversely ovate, rounded, pinkish-orange. Fruits trilobite, ± conical, 3.5 x 4 mm, ± smooth, glabrous, ripening within the cyathium. Styles united at the base, c. 2 mm long, bifid; stigmas thickened, recurved-Seeds ovoid, 2.5 x 2 x 1.75 mm, tuberculate, brownish-grey, ecarunculate.

Fl. Per.: Feb: Nov.

Holotype: Madagascar, Bojer s.n. (? P).

Distribution: Madagascar. Widely cultivated especially in the Old World Tropics.