It is usually dormant and leafless for most part of the year, but would come to life in winter with new leaves and white to pinkish discoid flowers.

It forms a sprawling clump or a subshrub that is 22-40 cm high (though much taller if shaded and overwatered) and would spread by tubers which develop an underground mainstay system.

The inflorescences are 12-20 cm tall, forked corymbs with small heads and without rays, that are mainly made of cup-shaped, inconspicuous and repugnant-odoured disk-flowers that are pollinated by insects such as flies, beetles and bees.

[6] It is also drought-resistant, growing in dry arid areas in southern Africa.

[7] Its cultivar 'Candlelight' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.