[2] George King, the botanist who first formally described the species under the basionym Orophea setosa, named it after the bristly (setosus in Latin) hairs on its leaves and petioles.

The leaves are sparsely to densely hairy on their upper and lower surfaces and fringed with long hairs at their margins.

Its petioles, when present, are 5 by 0.7-3 millimeters, very densely covered in erect bristly hairs, and have a broad groove on their upper side.

Its solitary Inflorescences occur on branches, and are organized on very densely hairy peduncles that are 1-3 by 0.3-0.8 millimeters.

The cream-colored to pale yellow, oval to elliptical, outer petals are 2-4 by 2.4 millimeters with hairless upper and densely hairy lower surfaces.

The claw and base of the blade are red, turning to cream-colored or pale yellow at the tip.

[7] It has been observed growing on limestone granite substrates, in lowland evergreen forests at elevations of 50-400meters.

[6] Bioactive compounds, including the alkaloid liriodenine, extracted from its aerial tissues have been observed in laboratory tests to have antimycobacterial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, antimalarial activity against Plasmodium falciparum, and cytotoxicity to cultured human cancer cell lines.