Plants shrubs 10-25 cm tall, creeping or cushion-shaped, unisexual (species dioecious), profusely shortly branched; branches straight, alternate, dark grey or grey-brown, smooth or longitudinally fissured, terminating in a spine. Leaves alternate or fascicled on short shoots, petiolate and stipulate; petioles 1-2 mm long, puberulent; stipules linear-lanceolate, subequalling the petioles; blades 5-10 mm long, 2.5-6 mm wide, obovate ovovate-elliptic, or oblong, bright green, papery, glabrous or puberulent, lateral veins 2 or 3 pairs, inconspicuous, bases cuneate, margins sparsely acutley denticulate, tips obtuse or rounded, rarely acuminate. Inflorescences axillary, on short shoots, of 2-3 flowers. Flowers unisexual, broadly campanulate, 1.5-2 mm long, with a hypanthium, glabrous, shortly pedicellate. Drupes yellow or dark-brown at maturity, ovoid-globose, 2-4.5 mm in diameter, hypanthium persistent at the base, with 2 or 3 stones; seeds brown, shoiny, oblong-ovoid, about 3 mm long, with a narrow extending their full length.
Rhamnus grubovii grows in rock crevices in the subalpine and alpine zones. It used to be known as Rhamnus minuta but that name had been used earlier for another species, one known only as a fossil. .