Shrub, 2-3(-4) m tall, erect or suberect, semideciduous; stem and branches pale, whitish to greyish, terete to subsulcate, glabrescent, younger ones obscurely to distinctly puberulous; internodes 1.5-3.5 cm long; spines (1-)3-fid, (6-)10-20 mm long, yellowish to straw-coloured. Leaves oblanceolate to oblong-obovate, (2-) 3-6 cm long, 6-12 mm broad, subsessile, usually conspicuously papillose, grey or white below, entire to 2-4 spinulose at the margins, acute to subacuminate, openly veined. Racemes (6-)10-25-flowered, 3-6(-7) cm long, rarely shorter and subfascicled (2-2.5 cm.). Flowers 6-8 mm across, usually pale-yellow; pedicels 6-12(-15) mm long, rarely longer, slender, thin, glabrous; bracts 2-2.5 mm. long. Prophylls c. 1 mm long, ovate, reddish. Outer sepals much smaller than the middle and inner sepals; inner sepals 4.5-5 mm long, 3 mm broad, obovate. Petals slightly shorter than the inner sepals, obovate, emarginate, with lanceolate basal glands. Stamens slightly shorter than petals, connectives produced or anthers apiculate. Ovules usually 4, shortly stipitate. Berries 7-8 mm long, c. 5 mm broad, ovoid or obovoid-subglobose, excluding 1 mm long style, blackish with heavy grey-white bloom; seeds 3-4 mm long.