Creeping, mat-forming shrublet, rooting at nodes, to 3 cm high, 40 cm diam. Stems c. 1 mm diam., shortly pubescent around leaf-bases, otherwise glabrous. Leaves oblong to very narrowly elliptic, flat or slightly incurved, apex obtuse with a tuft of cilia, glaucous, upper surface glabrous, margins and distal end of lower surface ciliate; lamina (0.5–)2–3(–4) mm long, 0.4–0.6 mm wide, main vein and usually two lesser veins visible underneath. Inflorescence of 1–3 flowers, with 1 or 2 central vegetative buds that grow out after anthesis; bracts narrowly oblong, often larger than leaves. Flowers bisexual, perianth c. 2.5 mm long, including lobes c. 1 mm long, the whole appressed ciliate on outer surface, usually with a few hairs within the tube floral tube 1.5–2 mm long, corolla lobes c. 1 mm long; stamens alternating with tepals, filaments 0.1–0.6 mm long; style 0.6–0.9 mm long. Seed ovoid, c. 2 mm long, black, glossy. Flowers Jan.
Formerly included in the (now) New Zealand endemic species K. laxa (Cheeseman) Heads, from which it differs in the smaller, 1–3-nerved leaves and fewer-flowered inflorescences.
