A ± erect, glabrous, glaucous perennial herb upto 40 cm tall, although usually c. 20 cm tall, with several stems borne on caudiculi arising from a woody stock. Stem-leaves alternate, sessile, variable in shape and size, from linear to lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 1-7 x 0.1-1 (-1.5) cm, those of the axillary shoots narrower than those of the main stems, acute, subacute, obtuse or round-ed at the apex, rounded or shallowly cordate at the base, subentire to irregularly or uniformly sharply denticulate, sometimes the margin also crisped-undulate, obscurely palminerved. Pseudumbels 3-4 (-5)-rayed; pseudumbel-leaves 3-5, whorled, slightly larger than those of the main stem but otherwise resembling them; ray-leaves opposite, progressively shorter and broader than the pseudumbel leaves. Cyathia terminating each axis. Glands transversely ovate, rounded on the outer edge, ochreous. Fruits trilobate, ± conical, 6 x 5 mm, smooth. Styles various, united at the base or for upto 1/3 their length, ½ mm long, bifid, bilobate or ± undivided. Seeds obovoid-cylindric, 4.5 x 3 x 2.5 mm (excluding the caruncle), ± smooth, pale grey or whitish, with a stipitate conical caruncle.

Fl. Per.: Mar: July; Fr. Per.: May-July.

Holotype: Baluchistan, ‘inter segetes in agro Brahuico frequens’, Khuzdar [Khozdar], 1850, J.E. Stocks 731 (K); Isotype (G).

Distribution: Iran, Afghanistan. On open stony limestone hillsides, in ravines, in fields on sandy or clayey soil and by irrigation canals and waterways; 4600'/1400 m. - 9500'/2900 m.

Euphorbia retusa Forssk. is recorded by Stewart, op. cit. 452. 1972, for Baluchistan, but this is unlikely since this species ranges from the Canaries to N. Arabia. I have not seen the specimens he cites, but it is most likely that they are referable either to caeladenia or to one of the next 2 species.