Decumbent to erect, often divaricate shrub to c. 30 cm (rarely 1 m) high; branchlets not spine-tipped; indumentum of stems and flowers of stellate hairs overlain by simple hairs. Leaves shortly petiolate, narrowly ovate to linear and more or less terete, 2–5 mm long, c. 0.5–1 mm wide, grooved beneath, glabrous, scabrous or minutely hispid, apex acute to acuminate, strongly recurved; stipules mostly 1–3 mm long. Flowers sessile, clustered toward branch-tips, sometimes in apparent heads, rarely solitary; bracts brown, broad-ovate, to 1–1.2 mm long, blunt, glabrous or sparsely ciliate; perianth broadly campanulate, 1.5–2.5 mm long, white, ageing pink to red, covered throughout with minute stellate hairs overlain by simple hairs; sepals c. equal to or slightly longer than hypanthium; petals c. 0.5–1 mm long; style 3-lobed at summit, shortly exceeding hypanthium, glabrous. Fruit 2.2–3 mm long, slightly exceeding the enlarged hypanthium. Flowers mostly Aug.–Oct.