A large, woody twiner, to 9 m high. Young branches rusty-tomentellous, the adult ones glabrous. Leaves elliptic to narrow-elliptic, 6-13 by 2.5-7 cm, acute or obtuse at the base, short-to long acuminate at the apex with an acute or obtusish, mucronate to subulate top, coriaceous, sometimes more or less bullate, glabrous or nearly so above, and with few scattered appressed hairs beneath, glabrescent, or tomentose (in var. tomen-tosa). Lateral nerves 6-9 on either side of the midrib, the finer nervation not so distinctly visible above as in N. racemosa; petiole 10—13(—22) mm long. Inflorescences from the leaf-axils, one or few from an axil, racemose, or sometimes ramified and then paniculate, brown-tomentose, 3-13 cm long. Pedicels to 3 mm. Bract immediately below the sepals, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, with a distinct mucro, ca 3-4.5 mm long, in fruit broad-elliptic, obtuse or emarginate and mucronulate at the apex, slightly cordate at the base, ca 4-4.5 cm long. Sepals 2-2.5 mm long; 2 outer ones orbicular, the 3 inner broader than long. Corolla broadly campanulate to rotate, ca 5-6.5 mm long, red, white with a red tinge, or white, deeply 5-lobed, lobes longer than the tube, with more or less incurved, obtuse top, pilose outside. Ovary globose; styles ca 1¼ mm long, stigmas ½-¾ mm wide. Capsule ovoid, ca 6 mm high.
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