They are distinctive for possessing red translucent heart-shaped markings on their leaves that serve to attract their main pollinators - the hummingbird Heliodoxa jacula - to their more inconspicuous flowers.

Columnea consanguinea is a shrub-like herb with unbranched pale brown and hairy stems that grow to a maximum length of around 1 to 1.2 m (3.3 to 3.9 ft) long.

They are predominantly dark green in color but bear characteristic translucent bright red heart-shaped markings on the underside of their leaves.

The latter also has red heart-shaped markings on their leaves but can be distinguished by the teeth-like (pectinate) edges of their flower calyces.

In order to attract their main pollinators, the nectarivorous green-crowned brilliant (Heliodoxa jacula),[4][5] they instead use the markings on their leaves.

Sunlight filtering through the translucent patches on their leaves give them a brilliant red color, reminiscent of stained-glass windows.

Though Hanstein mistakenly assumed that the type specimens were from the Philippines,[11] they were actually collected by the German botanist Hermann Wendland on March 24, 1857 from Costa Rica.

Most notably, the American botanist Laurence Skog of the Smithsonian Institution prefers to treat them as belonging to the genus Columnea.