It is a small evergreen tree or shrub, with shiny green lance-shaped leaves and reddish-pink flowers.

The first known specimen of the plant was collected in 1909 on the Manongarivo Massif of central Madagascar at an elevation of 1700 meters.

In 1963, the French botanist René Paul Raymond Capuron examined the unidentified plant sample, which he identified as a new species, which he named Bubbia perrieri, after the French botanist Henri Perrier de la Bâthie, classifying it in the Australasian Winteraceae genus Bubbia.

A subsequent expedition discovered a large grove of the species at the spot where the second sample was collected.

Takhtajania lacks water-conducting cells, called vessels, which allow plants to withstand drought, and must have remained in moist conditions for millions of years.