Erect plants consisting of up to 7 irregularly branched main axes growing 6 to 22.5 cm high and 2 to 3 mm wide, resembling a horsetail fern.  The main axes branch to 4 orders and are clothed (either sparsely or densely) in whorls of between 5 and 8 short incurved branchlets which divide di- to trichotomously.  The branchlets are 1.4 to 2.4 mm long and consist of 4 to 7 cells of which the terminal one is mucronate.  Without the branchlets, the main axis is 200 to 350 µm wide.  Plants are soft and spongy when young becoming more cartilaginous when older and are a dark red colour.
 

Original publication: Kützing, F.T. (1843). Phycologia generalis oder Anatomie, Physiologie und Systemkunde der Tange... Mit 80 farbig gedruckten Tafeln, gezeichnet und gravirt vom Verfasser. pp. [part 1]: [i]-xxxii, [1]-142 , [part 2:] 143-458, 1, err.], pls 1-80. Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus.
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Loiseaux-de Goër, S. & Noailles, M.-C. (2008). Algues de Roscoff. pp. [1]-215, col. figs. Roscoff: Editions de la Station Biologique de Roscoff.

Maggs, C.A. & Hommersand, M.H. (1993). Seaweeds of the British Isles. Volume 1. Rhodophyta. Part 3A. Ceramiales. pp. xv + 444, 129 figs, map. London: HMSO.

Papenfuss, G.F. (1964). Catalogue and bibliography of Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic benthic marine algae. In: Bibliography of the Antarctic Seas. (Lee, M.O. Eds) Vol.1, pp. 1-76. Washington D.C.: American Geophysical Union.

Type species
This is the type species (holotype) of the genus Halurus

Basionym
Conferva equisetifolis Lightfoot

Type information
Type locality: Hampshire, England (Dixon 1983). Lectotype: BM-K