[2] Joseph Dalton Hooker and Thomas Thomson, the British botanists who first formally described the species, named it after its exceptionally large (giganteus in Latin) flowers.

The upper surfaces of the leaves are shiny and dark green, while the undersides are paler.

Its 3 broad, oval sepals are 1.8 centimeters long and come to a blunt point at their tips.

[6] It has been observed growing in evergreen forests, swampy lowlands, and hillsides at elevations of 0 to 900 meters.

[6] Bioactive compounds extracted from its bark have been reported to have cytotoxic activity in tests with cultured human cancer cells.