The cream to pale yellow flowers of Mesembryanthemum nitidum sometimes have orange-red centres or salmon-pink, spreading petal tips. The petals are narrowly oblong and round-tipped. There are shorter petals near the flower centre grading into filamentous staminodes around the stamens. Flower diameter is from 2 cm to 3 cm. Flowering happens in the first half of spring or a little longer than that.

The succulent leaves are paired and mostly erect. The leaf-shape is nearly cylindrical, thickish and round-tipped. The leaf surface is yellow-green, sometimes blue-green, covered in water cells. Near flowering time there may be more leaf-like sepals around buds than leaves visible to perform photosynthesis (Grenier, 2019; Le Roux, et al, 2005; Smith, et al, 1998; iNaturalist).