Decumbent to erect, often divaricate shrub to c. 30 cm (rarely 1 m) high; branchlets sometimes terminating in spines; indumentum of branchlets (and where present, flowers) entirely of minute stellate hairs. Leaves shortly petiolate, terete, 2–5(–8) mm long, c. 0.5 mm wide, grooved beneath, glabrous, scabrous or minutely hispid; stipules to 1.5 mm long. Flowers sessile, clustered toward branch-tips, sometimes in apparent heads, rarely solitary; bracts brown, broad-ovate, to c. 1 mm long, blunt, glabrous or sparsely ciliate; perianth broad-campanulate, 1.5–2.5 mm long, white, ageing pink to red, glabrous or glabrescent, at least toward base; sepals c. equal to or slightly longer than hypanthium; petals c. 0.5 mm long; style 3-lobed at summit, shortly exceeding hypanthium, glabrous. Fruit 2.5–3 mm long, slightly exceeding the enlarged hypanthium. Flowers May–Oct.