Its stem diameter ranges between 7 and 10 millimetres (0.28 and 0.39 in) at the base, not hollow in age, green, minutely puberulent with simple, uniseriate, stiff 1–2-celled trichomes.

Its leaves are interrupted imparipinnate, bright green, minutely pubescent with stiff simple uniseriate trichomes like those of the stems.

Inflorescences range between 12 and 30 centimetres (4.7 and 11.8 in) in size, with 8–30 flowers, ebracteate or bracteate on most nodes from the base.

Seeds are obovate, narrowly winged at the apex and acute at the base, pale brown, pubescent with hair-like outgrowths of the integument cell radial walls, which give the surface a silky appearance.

On rocky slopes in the Department of Ancash, Peru at an altitude between 940 and 3,000 metres (3,080 and 9,840 ft).