[2] C. pubescens varies from small to large in size, growing to 10 metres (33 ft) in height.

[3] Taxonomic synonyms include:[4] C. pubescens has the widest distribution of all Cinchona species, with the native range spanning Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.

Growing at a rate of 1–2 m per year, it quickly reaches a tall height where it can shade out the rest of the native plants.

[9] It has become an invasive species where planted outside of its native range, especially on tropical climate islands such as the Galapagos, Hawaii, and Tahiti.

[14] However, controlling it over its total range on Santa Cruz island would cost US$1.65 million according to research done through the Charles Darwin Foundation.

[16] It is also invasive in Hawaii, on Maui and the Big Island [17] C. pubescens was first introduced to these to be cultivated for quinine harvesting.

The physical method involves manually felling adult trees and fully removing the stumps.

Buddenhagen et al. tried this at the Galapagos Island National Park using a mixture of picloram and metsulfuron.