The name of the species was chosen in honor of the South African botanist Wessel Marais. It is a pleasant rosette compact and small in size, which tends to turn on and give life to particular tufts of variable size. It is characterized by small lanceolate and strongly pointed leaves, adorned by margins finely covered with soft and thin teeth. The entire epidermis, of a very dark green sometimes tending almost to blackish, is adorned by irregular tubercles strongly three-dimensional that make it pleasantly rough to the touch. The crested shape of this succulent presents the typical fan arrangement that makes each exemplar absolutely unique, never identical to another and for this reason so much appreciated by collectors.