Euphorbia skottsbergii var. skottsbergii is a subshrub with erect, ascending prostrate stems measuring 0.2–1(–2) meters long. It features pilose to villous surfaces that become glabrate. The flowering branches, occasionally nodose, are 0.5–2 mm in diameter. The leaves are simple, opposite, and distichous, occasionally repand, with ovate-elliptic to obovate blades (5–)12–20 mm long and 3–12 mm wide. The leaf apex varies from acute to rounded, retuse or mucronulate, while the base ranges from cuneate to rounded and oblique. The upper leaf surfaces are glabrous, and the lower surfaces range from pilose to villous, especially on the midvein and basal margins. Margins are either serrate or entire. Petioles are (1–)1.5–4 mm long and pilose to villous. Stipules are rounded–triangular, 0.5–1 mm long, and range from glabrous to villous and ciliate, often erose. The flowers are in cyathia, solitary in leaf axils, with peduncles 0.5–1(–1.5) mm long and pilose to villous. The involucre is campanulate, 1–2 mm high and wide, with a surface glabrous to pilose, featuring 4(5) glands that are yellowish green to red, either glabrous or pilose beneath. It presents unisexual and highly reduced flowers, with pistillate flowers solitary on a gynophore and staminate flowers grouped in cymules, each having one to several flowers. Calyx and corolla are absent. Male flowers consist of a single stamen. The ovary is superior, with green to white or red styles, bifid approximately halfway, and 0.5–1 mm long, ranging from glabrous to sparsely villous with a thickened stigma. The fruit is a 1.5–2 mm long green capsule, either glabrous or sparsely tomentose, with recurved gynophores that become erect just before dehiscence, exserted 1–2 mm from the involucre and villous. The seeds are gray to brown, 1.2–1.3 mm long, and rugose. It inhabits coastal vegetation and dry shrubland, seemingly restricted to calcareous substrates, with an elevation range of 5–200 meters.