[2] Achille Richard, the French botanist who first formally described the species, named it after the bubbled (bullatus in Latin)[3] appearance of the spaces between the fine network of veins in the leaves.

The subsidiary veins cause the spaces they enclose to have a bubble-like appearance on the upper surface of the leaf.

The upper surfaces of the mature grey-green leaves are hairless, their undersides have rust-colored hairs.

Its sepals are united at their base to form a calyx with 3 triangular lobes that come to a point at their tip.

[4] Several bioactive molecules known as acetogenins[7] have been isolated from its bark including: bullatacin, which has pesticidal activity;[8] bullatalicin, which is selectively cytotoxic to human tumor cells;[9] and bullatanocinone, which highly cytotoxic to lung and colon cancer cells[10]