It is a perennial herb producing many branching prostrate stems up to 1 metre (3+1⁄2 feet) long, forming a mat up to 2 m (6+1⁄2 ft) tall and wide.

[3] The gray-green herbage is verrucose, covered densely in crystalline bumps.

The stems are lined with leaves of varying shapes which measure up to 4 centimetres (1+1⁄2 inches) long.

They have no petals, but the five, pointed sepals are generally bright pink to reddish or orange in color with a thick, verrucose outer surface.

It grows in many types of saline and alkaline habitat types on the coast and inland,[3] including salt marshes and other saline wetlands, alkali flats, and drying desert washes.