[2][3] René Louiche Desfontaines,[4] the botanist who first formally described the species, named it after Guyana where Joseph Martin[5] collected the specimen he examined.

The midvein and secondary veins are sunken on the upper surfaces and raised on the undersides of the leaves.

Its petioles are 1.2–1.8 centimeters long and have groove and are slightly to densely covered in soft hairs.

Its branched, many-flowered Inflorescences occur at the junction between the leaves and stem or in terminal positions.

Its flowers have 5 sepals with egg-shaped lobes that are covered in soft hairs and have densely fringed margins.

Its woody, red-brown, hairless fruit are divided into two long, thin sections that are each 15–25 by 7 millimeters.