[3] Eileen Adelaide Bruce,[4] the botanist who first formally described the species, named it after the dense covering of wooly hairs (tomentosus in Latin) on its flowers.

Its brown, warty stems and branches are densely covered in wooly hairs when young.

Its petioles are 7–15 millimeters long and densely covered in rust-colored wooly hairs.

Its flowers have 5 triangular to egg-shaped sepals that are 1.5–2 by 1 millimeters, densely covered in white wooly hairs on their outer surface, and have pointed tips.

Its sparsely hairy corona has thread-like lobes that are 5–6 millimeters long and radially aligned with the sepals.

The oval pollen carriers have bases that are divided into three parts and covered in a sticky surface.