[1][2] Costera is a small genus of shrubs with glabrous, leathery, unlobed leaves arranged in alternate phyllotaxy.

The 4 or 5 petals are also fused into a short tube, and the inner surface of the corolla contains minute laciniate projections toward the base.

The alternating stamens are lightly appressed to the corolla and have a short linear filament.

[2] Costera was described in the fourth volume of the Icones Bogoriensis in 1914 by Johannes Jacobus Smith.

Smith records tjapien djanten as an indigenous name for the plant originating from the Karimata Islands.