Erect spiny shrub to 1.5m with glossy dark-brown to reddish stems with spreading spines. Thread-like leaves (false leaves called cladodes which perform function of a leaf), in clusters of up to 10. Bears 1 or 2 star-shaped white flowers in the axils of the leaf tufts, with tepals and stamens spreading.

Latin: ruber = red; -cundus = tendency: referring to the reddish stems of this species.

Resprouts quickly after fire.