Camu-Camu is a low-growing shrub found throughout the Amazon rainforest, mainly in swampy or flooded areas. It grows to a height of about 2-3 m and has large, feathery leaves. It produces round, light orange-colored fruits about the size of lemons.

 

Ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin notes in his book, Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice, that "a forest stand of Camu-Camu is worth twice the amount to be gained from cutting down the forest and replacing it with cattle," and he believes that Camu-Camu cultivation holds real economic promise for local economies. Usually, Camu-Camu fruit is wild-harvested in the rainforest in canoes because the fruits mature at high water or flooding seasons in the Amazon.