Suffruticose perennial, much branched, forming clumps up to 1 m in diameter. Stems erect to c. 50 cm, leafy, white or pale-coloured, quadrangular, pubescent to glabrous. Leaves not clustered, ovate to triangular-ovate in outline; lamina up to 20-30 x 20 mm, in degree of lobing, deeply palmate to 2 x pinnate, ultimate lobes rounded apiculate or not, with fine eglandular hairs and finely glandular punctate. Petiole up to 2 cm. Spines white, sturdy, up to 20 mm, erect-spreading. Verticillasters 4-6-flowered, distant, in upper leaf axils. Calyx 20-30 mm long, yellowish green becoming straw-coloured in fruit, glabrous or with few short eglandular hairs and scattered oil globules; tube 5-8 (-11) mm, faintly veined; lobes ± oblong, 3-7 mm broad, up to 2 x length of tube, rounded to acute at apex, shortly apiculate or not, erect-spreading. Corolla white or yellowish white, 25-30 mm; tube c. 15 mm included in calyx; upper lip ± straight, bind densely villous, bearded at margins. Thecae hairy.