Spreading-ascending perennial to c. 20 cm high, branches glabrous except for axillary cottony hair-tufts. Leaves terete or flattened near base, 4–10 mm long, initially sericeous but soon glabrous, fleshy, usually glaucous. Fruiting perianth hard, bright pink to reddish at maturity, tube glabrous, prominently 10-ribbed, c. 2 mm long, c. 1.5 mm wide at midpoint, dilated above and below, attached centrally at base, attachment elliptic, slightly hollowed, 1 or 2 short (c. 0.5 mm long) spurs produced laterally; apex slightly sunken with short papery, sparsely pubescent limb extending above rim; spines 6, spreading, stout, glabrous, 1.5–3 mm long, 2 of them attached to an indistinct radicular spur and these sometimes shorter than others. Fruits Jan.–Mar. (2 records).
MSB. Known only from a few small populations in saline shrublands of the Murray floodplain in the extreme NW of the State (e.g. Lake Wallawalla, Lindsay Island).
