A thicket-forming shrub or dioecious tree native to South America, it is a perennial phanerogamous or seed producing plant in the Polygonaceae family.

[3] Pendry says salicifolia is unmistakable in the Ruprechtia genus "because of its long, narrowly ovate leaves, which have the highest length:width ratio".

[7] It furnishes an excellent hard timber (relative density 0.62-0.70) that resists decay and is siliceous (thus it blunts edged tools, but withstands mollusc and crustacean attack).

It is used in coachwork, boatbuilding, bearings, tools, beams, springboards, goal posts, shoe trees, fine folded furniture, cabinet making, walking sticks, tobacco pipes, carvings, kitchen mortars, and other woodwork.

[5] Ziliani attributes the mature wood's hardness and resistance to decay in aquatic environments (notably in the presence of the naval shipworm) to its silica content, a feature found in timbers with similar properties.