Plants perennial herbs, covered with short, non-glandular hairs on all aerial parts. Stems erect, to at least 50 cm tall. Leaves crowded towards the base of the stems, linear to marrowly lanceolate, 12-50 mm long, 1-5 mm wide, tips acute or subacute. Inflorescences cymes but appearing like racemes, unbranched or forked a the tbas, with 1-2 flowers. Calyces tubular-clavate, 20-25 mm long with teeth 3-5 mm long; petals reddish-brown, pink, or whitel styles 3. Seeds rounded-reniform, about 1.6 mm in diameter, dark brown, dorsal surface deeply rgrooved with marginal wings, surfaces with fine, radiating, ruguluose lines.
Sliene burchellii grows on rocky limestone slopes at 1600-1900 m in regions N2 and N3 of the Flora of Somalia, and in Ethiopia and southwards to South Africa and in tropical Arabia.