The Latin species epithet balfourii honors the Scottish botanist Isaac Bayley Balfour (1853-1922).

It has alternately arranged, oval to lance-shaped, toothed, stalked leaves up to 4 centimetres (1.6 in) long.

[3] It was brought back to England and many other European countries as a garden plant, and then it became popular in the San Francisco Bay Area and other parts of the United States.

[3] It can now be found growing wild as a garden escapee in Europe, on the US Pacific Coast, and in Wisconsin,[4] where it is a restricted species because of its invasiveness.

It thrives in cool and moist areas, at an altitude of 100–600 metres (330–1,970 ft) above sea level.