It is found in the countries of Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Panamá, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago and Venezuela.

The corolla is magenta to wine-colored, tubular-campanulate shaped and above a narrowly tubular base.

The ovary is linear-cylindric shaped and sparsely lepidote or puberulous (covered with minute soft erect hairs).

[5] The genus name of Martinella honours Joseph Martin (d. 1826), an Age of Enlightenment gardener-botanist and plant collector who worked at the Jardin du Roi in Paris.

[1] The genus is recognised by United States Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Service on 9 February 2005, but they only list Martinella obovata (Kunth) Bureau & K. Schum..[7] According to Kew,[1] A root extract from Martinella is useful in the treatment of conjunctivitis and possibly other conditions of the eye.