Rounded, profusely branched, spiny shrub reaching up to 3 m in height. This species is typically deciduous, shedding its leaves in response to climatic conditions, and often appears leafless or sparsely foliated with thick, subsessile leaves grey-tomentose, ovate to oblong (0.5–4 × 0.2–0.9 cm), with an obtuse apex and cuneate base. Flowers are solitary or paired, axillary and clustered along the spines with leaves. The corolla is whithe, pale violet, pink red or bluish-purple, densely villosous, glabrous inside, ciliate at the margins, with a tube about 1.5 cm long and ovate-oblong lobes ca. 2 mm. It bears five unequal stamens inserted just above the middle of the corolla tube; anthers dehisce longitudinally, and filaments are filiform, glabrous, and about 5 mm long. The calyx is tubular (1–1.5 mm long) with five equal triangular teeth (ca. 0.5 mm), and the pedicel is 0.3–1 cm long. The ovary is ovoid (1–1.5 mm), subtended by a disc; the style is filiform with a capitate stigma. The fruit is a small, edible, globose berry (ca. 5 mm), orange-red to scarlet at maturity.