The average brightness also varies slowly over several years so that the total range is given as magnitude 2.6–6.0.

[4][15] The variation in light may be caused by a combination of radial pulsations in the star's atmosphere and by dimming from circumstellar dust.

[16] L2 Puppis is most likely a red-giant branch star that has passed through the main sequence and is evolving to become a white dwarf.

[5] It is shedding mass at the rate of about 5×10−7 M☉ per year, forming a circumstellar dust disk and bipolar plumes of gas that are thought to be the start of a "butterfly"-type planetary nebula.

A hundred years ago, they were separated by about a minute of arc, but different proper motions mean that this is now about 1.5′.