[3] Carl Ludwig Blume, the botanist who first formally described the species under the basionym Uvaria rugosa, named it after its wrinkled (rugosus in Latin) fruit.

The young, dark brown to black branches are densely hairy but become hairless as they mature.

Its elliptical to egg-shaped, papery to slightly leathery leaves are 10-23 by 3–8.5 centimeters.

Its sparsely to densely hairy petioles are 4-12 by 0.8-3 millimeters with a narrow groove on their upper side.

Its Inflorescences occur in groups of 3–6 on branches, and are organized on very densely hairy peduncles that are 1.5-4 by 0.5-0.7 millimeters.

The light yellow-green, oval to elliptical, outer petals are 1–2.5 by 1–2.5 millimeters with hairless upper and very densely hairy lower surfaces.

The fruit occur in clusters of 1-9 and are organized on densely hairy peduncles that are 3-5 by 1-2 millimeters.

[6] Bioactive molecules extracted from its leaves and twigs have been reported to have cytostatic activity in tests with cultured human cancer cell lines.