Low shrub to a tree up to c. 8 m high; branches (at least of juvenile plants) commonly armed with slender spines c. 1 cm long. Leaves alternate (those subtending spines often clustered), linear, narrowly ovate, elliptic, or obovate, entire or shallowly toothed, often shallowly emarginate, glabrous. Inflorescence a more or less pyramidal panicle usually c. 5–12 cm long and wide; flowers white or cream; sepals ovate or triangular, 0.5–1 mm long, caducous; petals oblong to narrowly obovate, c. 5–8 mm long; stamens subequal to petals; ovary plus style shortly exceeded by stamens. Capsule broadly obovate or obcordate, 4–8 mm long, 5–10 mm wide, brown, glabrous; seeds reniform, brown, flat, c. 3–4 mm long. Flowers Oct.–Jan.