One of the first Europeans to write about this species was the General Nikolai Ivanovich Korolkov, who was engaged in the conquering of Turkestan, and collected herbarium specimens of this plant there in the early 1870s.

Another early collector was Johann Albert von Regel, who collected specimens of this species less than a decade later in the highlands throughout the region (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan).

Boris Fedtschenko later published R. megalacarpum in his 1915 work Растительность Туркестана, the Flora of Turkestan, but omitted a valid description.

Agnia Losina-Losinskaja validly published the taxon in 1932 (the date in the publication itself is 1931) under its present name in the Известия Главного ботанического сада С.С.С.Р., also known as Bulletin du jardin botanique principal de l'U.R.S.S..[2] It has a single,[2] reddish,[1] leafless, branched stem 40–100 cm (16–39 in) tall, the base of which is compressed to (only) one side and is sulcate and is covered in minute warts or smooth.

[2] In her original 1932 description, as well as in her 1936 key in Komarov's Flora SSSR, Losinskaja considers this species closely related and most similar to Rheum ribes,[1][2] the desert rhubarb of the mountains of the Middle East, in leaves and flowers,[2] classifying them both in the section Ribesiformia.

This ecosystem is somewhat uncommon, but may occur at a variety of elevations on alluvial fans near snow accumulations, and is characterised by being dominated by large herbaceous Polygonum coriarium.

In the Shugnan area it grows on mildly sloping scree together with Prangos pabularia, Ferula grigoriewii, Heracleum lehmannianum, H. olgae, Polygonum coriarium, Ephedra spp.

[11] In the Kaskasu Gorge of Kazakhstan it grows in the foothills in grass and gravel, unlike the sympatric Rheum wittrockii which is found in more wooded settings.

[10] It grows at the altitude of 2200m in the Chuy region of Kyrgyzstan in pastures used for grazing milking mares together with plants such as Codonopsis clematidea, Cysticorydalis fedtschenkoana, Dactylorhiza umbrosa, Dictamnus angustifolius and Korolkowia sewerzowii.

[8] It shares its habitat in the hills around Korday Pass with Anemone petiolulosa and Iris kuschakewiczii, a bit lower down on flatter ground the common species are Leontice eversmanii, Gagea filiformis, Tulipa greigii and T. ostrowskiana, and hidden under shrub cover Corydalis ledebouriana and Eranthis longistipitata.