A combination of characters make C. squarrosus unmistakable. The Y-branching pattern of shoots is quite distinctive. In the understorey, the shoots are yellowish brown but on the more exposed upper branches of trees adopts a crimson tinge.

The leaves are keeled and bifid (with two lobes), each lobe ending in a single multicellular hyaline tooth. The underleaves are similar. The stems are dark and covered with hair-like paraphylls (leaf-like or filamentous protuberances). Microscopically, the leaf cells are papillose and the trigones are massive.