Plants usually sprawing or vinelike subshrubs, occasionally erect, with conspicuous stinging hairs, particularly on the leaves with both staminate and pistillate flowers (species monoecious); stems to 2 m long, pubescent to subtomentose. Leaves: petioles 0.8-2 cm long; blades triangular ovate to lanceolate, 1.8-3.5(4) cm long, 0.9-2,2 cn wide, bases challowly cordate to subtrunacte, margins coarsely serrate to serrate-crenate, tips rounded to acute. Inflorescences terminal or leaf-opposed racemes, to 6 cm long, unisexual or mostly staminate but with 1-3 pistillate flowers near the base; staminate flowers in small clusters. Pistillate flowers: sepalsovate, accrescent, to 9 mm long, with 4-6 lobes on each side, largely concealed by stinging hairs. Fruits about 4.5 mm long and 8 mm wide; seeds about 3 mm in diameter, pale reddish brown with overlapping whitish spots.
Tragia pungens grows among rocks in open deciduous woorlands or bushland at 910-2000 m. It is known from regions N1-2 of the Flora of Somalia, Ethiopia and tropical Arabia.
Some collections from Somaliland appear to be dioecious and the plantfrom there appear to have consistently narrower leaves than those from Ethiopia and Arabia.