Prickly shrub, to c. 1 m high, 1.2 m diam.; branchlets red-brown, sparsely villous. Leaves pinnatisect, pungent-pointed, 3–9.2 cm long overall, flattened, glabrous to sparsely villous, lateral pinnae dichotomously or trichotomously divided; petiole 1.2–5.6 cm long. Inflorescence c. globular, mostly terminal, sessile, c. 1.5 cm diam.; involucral bracts glabrous, broadly-ovate to ovate; cone scales narrow-ovate to ovate, villous on the lower half outside. Flowers to c. 1.5 cm long, yellow, glabrous except for a tuft of hairs on the apex of each tepal; pollen presenter at base papillose, hardly swollen, constricted near midway then dilated into globular region, apical part glabrous, hardly swollen except for the apical stigma-bearing cup, c. 3 mm long. Cones c. globular, to c. 2.2 cm diam.; nuts villous, ovoid, tapered into a persisting style base, to c. 3 mm long. Flowers Jul.–Jan.