Sprawling or erect shrublet up to 40cm, woody at base with whitish branches. Leaves crowded near base, linear-filiform, stipules cut to base into hair-like lobes; flowers in long-stalked cymes, white, 3-4mm long, floral disc is red to yellow.

Inconspicuous in dull weather as flowers close.

After: Pharnaces II (63-47B.C.), son of the king of Pontus in Anatolia on the Black Sea.

The genus Pharnaceum in the Molluginaceae was published in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus.