Tahid-labuyo is found from Mindanao to Northern Luzon from sea level to an altitude of 1,400 meters. It also occurs in India to East Africa, China, Malaya and Austalia.
It is a scandent or strangling, smooth shrub, growing from 2 to 4 meters in length, the branches of which are armed with stout, sharp straight, or somewhat recurved spines, 1 to 1.5 centimeters long. The leaves are elliptic-ovate to oblong-ovate tapering to a short point, and the base rounded. The heads are solitary or in pairs, rounded and short-peduncled. The female heads are 7 to 8 centimeters in diameter, yellowish, dense, and in fruit, fleshy and up to 5 centimeters in diameter.