It is a shrub growing to 61 centimetres (24 in) tall, forming multi-stemmed cushion-shaped clumps up to 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) wide.

It has high concentration of resiniferatoxin, an analog of capsaicin, the primary vanilloid compound found in hot peppers.

It can interact with a vanilloid receptor on primary sensory neurons mediating pain (nociception) and neurogenic inflammation.

Desensitization to topical resiniferatoxin has been tested in clinical trials to evaluate its potential to relieve neuropathic pain, as in diabetic polyneuropathy and postherpetic neuralgia.

[4] Resiniferatoxin injected subcutaneously into a rat hind paw several minutes before a surgical incision reduced postsurgical pain for 10 days in a NIH study published March 2018.