[2] It is a prostrate plant with stems up to 1.5 metres (5 ft) long.

They are composed of 250 to 300 stamens, surrounded by petal-like staminodes that are mostly purple, but white at the base.

[3] It was first published in 1812 by Adrian Hardy Haworth, who gave it the name Mesembryanthemum virescens.

In 1914 the species was demoted to a variety of M. edule (now C. edulis) by Charles Edward Moss, but this was not accepted, and in 1928 Martin Heinrich Gustav Schwantes transferred the species into Carpobrotus as C. virescens.

[6] Endemic to Western Australia, C. virescens occurs on coastal limestone cliffs and dunes from the western edge of the Great Australian Bight, west and north almost to Shark Bay.