Shrub up to 1 m tall. New branches green, succulent, older yellowish white to silvery-white. Leaf-pairs reduced to small, deltoid, connate scales forming mebranous-margined cupules at each node. Flowers on simple or paniculate axillary spikes. Stamens exserted; staminodes thick, papillose-glandular. Stigma 2. Wings of fruiting perianth rather unequal, overlapping, greenish to shades of pink to almost white.