It is an evergreen subshrub that thrives in constant heat and prefers sheltered gardens.

Growing up to 1.8 m tall, it features weak stems, large softly hairy, venated, palmate leaves that are 20 cm long and wide at most, with seven or more broad, blunt lobes.

[4] The 8 to 10 mm long, yellow flowerheads, like daisies, of about 6 ray ligulate petals are borne in foliaceous panicles.

[7][8] The plant is native to the subtropical highlands (Sierra Madre del Sur) of Oaxaca in Mexico, south to the tropics in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

The 'cristobalensis' variety is found in Chiapas, the southernmost Mexican state, and in Guatemala between elevations 1,000m and 1,600m.