Erect to spreading shrub to 1 m high. Articles of ultimate branches cylindric to obovoid, glaucous, 2–5 mm long, lobes rounded, margins entire. Spikes terminal to c. 3 cm long; opposite bracts united; flowers fused to each other and to upper bract; perianth rounded or truncate at apex. Fruiting perianth fused to pericarp, spongy to pithy; seed ovate, 1–1.5 mm long, readily released from perianth at maturity, testa crustaceous, reddish-brown, dorsal ridge with rows of concentric horseshoe-shaped tubercules, indistinctly granular on sides.
VVP, OtP. Locally common in saltmarsh on the western side of Port Phillip Bay and halophytic shrublands around saline lakes south of Geelong.
