A member of Rubiaceae, the coffee family, this large shrub is widely distributed in tropical forests from southern Mexico to northernmost Argentina. To attract its main pollinators, hummingbirds, its inconspicuous inflorescences are framed by two glossy, bright red bracts that look like a pair of pouting lips. The flowers are yellow and are in the center of the red bracts (function in attracting hummingbird pollinators). The fruits are beautiful royal blue.

It also have a number of applications in traditional medicine. It is used as a painkiller, and can also be used to treat headaches, sprains, rheumatism, respiratory tract infections, muscular pains and bruises, whooping cough, and earaches.
It also contains dimethyltryptamine, though as suggested by the use native peoples make of it probably not in quantities to render it strongly psychedelic.