Young sprouts have paired spines 0.5–2 millimeters long, often reflected.

Small greenish yellow flowers sit on the ridges of the topmost segment.

A red, round, three-lobed capsule fruit turns purple when ripe.found in the savanna in a tropical grasslands biome.

The plant occurs in Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Tanzania, South Africa (in the north and east of the country), Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Eswatini.

The plant’s flowers are attractive for butterflies, bees and other insects, which pollinate them when gathering pollen and nectar.

In South Africa and Zimbabwe candelabra tree stems are also used to poison fish.