This species vegetatively belongs to the very largest of this genus! If provided with sufficient nutrients, water and humidity the leathery, orange-veined leaves can reach dimensions of more than 40 x 25 cm. In most cases, however, it will stay smaller and adapt to normal air humidity  by producing smaller, waxy leaves.

 

Breaking a leaf or cutting parts back causes the plant to emit a very special scent - not smelling disgusting as some flowers of Aristolochia do but somehow strange yet aromatic.

 

The flowers appear in clusters (racemes) out of the older parts of the woody stem, a characteristic feature attributed to the subseries Anthocaulicae of the section Gymnolobus.