Plants shrubs, to 75 cm tall. Leaves usually uniformly distributed on the main stems, shortly petiolate; blades oblanceolate to narrowly obovate, 8-25 mm long, 3-8 mm wide, leathery, glabrous but with calcareous secretions, bases tapering to the petioles, tips acute to obtuse. Heads 1-2 cm wide, usually terminal; involucral bracts in 2-3 series,backs and margins abundantly ciliate, tips more or less elongate; receptacles elongate and subsessile. Flowers odorless; corollas blue to deep lilac-blue, upper lips 2-lobed, very reduced to absent; stamens 4, 2 long and 2 short.
Globularia arabica grows on monutan slopes and cliff faces, usually on limestone, at elevations of 1440-1800 m in regions N1 and N2 of the Flora of Somalia. It is also native in orthern Africa, the Middle East, Arabian Peninsula, Eritrea, and Djibouti.