Narrow upright prickly shrub with smooth bark on smaller stems, shedding in stringy strips. Rigid, prickly leaves, narrowly egg-shaped, broadest at base, concave tiny teeth along the margins, 5-13 mm x 1-3.5 mm. White flowers massed along stems, petals and sepals white, calyx and capsule hairless, capsules flaky with age, becoming rough.