It is native to dry hills, rock outcrops in central and southern Chile at elevations of 0 to 2200 meters.

The tough, stiffly protruding, parallel-veined leaves run into a sharp point, have a length of over 1 meter and a width of 2 to 2.5 centimeters.

The leaf margin is reinforced with hooked, curved, spines that are approximately 0.5 cm long.

The three teal petals with blunt tips are about 4.5 cm long and spiral in as they fade.

[2] This species was first described by Eduard Friedrich Poeppig in 1833 in the Fragmentum Synopseos Plantarum Phanerogamum: 8 under the name Pourretia alpestris.

The specific epithet alpestris for "Alps inhabiting" refers to the Andes for this species.