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.
Elburz mts: above Gach-i-sar, S. of Kandevan Pass: ledges of silt like clay on N. Facing cliff of partially metamorphosed shale with water pereolating down it