An erect shrub, subshrub or woody herb up to 1 m high, evenly stellate. pubescent. Petioles 0.5-3.5 cm long. Leaf-blades triangular-ovate to triangular-lanceolate, 4-7 x 1.5-3 cm, acute or obtuse at the apex, cuneate, rounded or subtruncate at the base, subentire to repand-dentate, 3(-5)-nerved from the base, nerves impressed above and prominent beneath, evenly pubescent above and beneath. Stipules subulate, 2 mm long. Inflorescences up to 1.5 cm long, supra-axillary or leaf-opposed. Male flowers subsessile; sepals lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 3.5 mm long, stellate-pubescent; petals lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 4 mm long, lepidote without, yellowish; disc c. 1 mm diam.; stamens 4-7 (-12), variously connate, anthers sub-biseriate. Female flowers: pedicels 5 mm long, extending to 2 cm in fruit and becoming deflexed, 1-3 on a short peduncle; sepals and petals linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, otherwise as in the ♂ sepals; ovary 2 mm diam., densely silvery-lepidote; styles stellate-pubescent and papillose, bipartite, 1-2 mm long. Fruit rounded-trilobate, 5-6 x 7-9 mm, somewhat muricate, lepidote, bluish-purple. Seeds triangular-ovoid, 4-5 x 3-4 mm, coarsely tuberculate, yellowish-grey.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: Apr: June.

Holotype: Egypt, ‘clans le desert aupres du chateau d'Ageround, sur la Route de Soueys’, Defile (MPU).

Distribution: Egypt (Sinai), Saudi Arabia (Hedjaz, Asir), Yemen, S. Yemen, Oman (Dhofar, Muscat), Sudan (Red Sea coast), Eritrea, Djibouti, N. Somalia, Socotra.

In sandy loam and gravelly sand;? 300 - 3000'/90 - 900 m.