Estado da Bahia. 19.5 km SE of the town of Morro do Chapeu on the BA 52 road to Mundo Novo, by the Rio Ferro Doido, with water worn horizontally bedded sandstone at soil surface, with damp sand, sedge marsh, exposed rock and waterfall
Found wild in the Maranhao region of Brazil and then cultivated at the University of Texas in Austin from where it was distributed to various zoologists as a possible food plant for Heliconius butterfly larvae.