Small plants of this species could be mistaken for C. elegans ssp. elegans, but that taxon* usually has many branches, with more open tips.
The species also resembles C. plegmatoides, which however has coarse (usually rounded) papillae on the leaves.
Usually with erect, up to 15 cm tall stems, often with a few branches.
The leaves are tightly packed, broadly egg-shaped, 0.5-0.9 x 0.7-1.3 cm, with bluntly acute, often mucronate** tips, concave above and convex below, velvety, green to yellowish green, but often tinged red towards the tip; they are closely clasping around the stem, forming a four-angled column 0.7-2 cm in diameter.
The tubular, cream to pale yellow flowers appear from Februari to April.
Found in Namaqualand between Grootmis and Lekkersing and north to the Buchu Mts. in Namibia, usually growing in crevices in quartzite outcrops on the southwest facing slopes of low hills.
* taxon: a term which can be used to refer to any taxonomic group, depending on the context.
**mucronate: abruptly ending with a small, three sided tip, which is sometimes extended into a bristle or spine.
