Knife-Leaf Condalia is a very spiny, impenetrable, low and wide shrub with grayish-green branches.  Knife-Leaf Condalia is a minor component in mixed-brush communities on dry gravelly or rocky caliche hillsides, in shallow soils and along stony arroyos in dry, open, brushy areas in the Western Rio Grande Plains and Southern Edwards Plateau.  New growth is browsed by white-tailed deer and livestock.  The fruit is eaten by various birds and quail.