To see this species in the wild, you have to go to the far north of Madagascar. The plants grow there abundantly on limestone on the Montagne des Français and neighbouring hills near Antsiranana. The old -but still often used- name for this town is Diego Suarez (hence the specific epithet).
The plants are solitary, with or without a short stem, with leaves up to 60 cm long and 10 cm wide.
They produce inflorescences 60-80 cm tall, with 4-12 branches. The flowers have a length of about 2.8 cm and are covered with very short, soft hairs.
