The tree is native to Panama, Guyana, Brazil (Acre, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia and Roraima), Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

[2] The trunk is about 43 cm (17 in) in diameter, cylindrical and has smooth brown and gray bark.

The fruit is ellipsoidal to subglobular, 11–20 mm (0.43–0.79 in) long, 10–15 m (33–49 ft) in diameter and comes in groups of 40.

[2] The Yanomami people use the powdered resin as an entheogen known as nyakwána which is inhaled or "snuffed" into the nasal cavity, it contains a high concentration of 5-MeO-DMT and DMT.

[3] Virola elongata extracts have weak antibacterial activity against Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus aureus.