It can be found in Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guyana, French Guiana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname, Trinidad, Tobago, and Venezuela.

It has elliptical leaves, 11–15 cm long and 4–7 cm wide, the acute apex, the cuneate base, glabrous, undersides with black dots.

In the eastern Pacific it ranges from southern Mexico to Peru.

[4] Rhizophora : generic name that derives from the Greek words: ριζα (rhiza), which means "root" and φορος (phoros), which means "support", referring to the piles of the base.

[5] harrisonii: epithet awarded in honor of the director of the Director of Science and Agriculture in British Guiana, Sir John Bunchmore Harrison.