These plants' active constituent is a chemical called ichthyothereol, which is a polyyne compound that is highly toxic to fish and mammals.

[4] Ichthyothere terminalis leaves have traditionally been used to make poisoned bait by indigenous peoples of the lower Amazon basin.

It lacks an expanded outer series of herbaceous involucral bracts or phyllaries.

The other species are small herbs with an erect stem, showing tightly clustered or glomerulate groups of capitula.

Recent molecular phylogenetic research has now placed the genus Ichthyothere in the subtribe Espeletiinae.