Robust bluish-green shrubs up to 2m with stiff sharply serrated leaves crowded at the tops of black netting-covered water absorbent stems. The inflorescence is a large terminal panicle.

If allowed to thrive and left undamaged they will mass into extensive stands preventing the scouring and destabilization of rivers at times of flood allowing the water to flow slowly through its mass.

It was once widely distributed from the Cape through to KwaZulu Natal along the coastal mountains and rivers, but now sadly diminished.