Espinheira Santa is an evergreen tree that reaches five meters in height. It has thin branches, wide crown, straight trunk. Its leaves are simple, alternate, irregularly elliptic-oblong, leathery, up to 7 cm in diameter, serrated spiny edge, yellow margin, very bright green spiny apex in the beam and pale on the underside. The flowers are small; the male ones are brownish yellow and the female ones are green with purple lines. The fruit is a yellow bivalve capsule, containing one or two seeds, and is covered by a red membrane.