[2] Émile De Wildeman, the botanist who first formally described the species using the basionym Thonnera congolana, named it after the Belgian Congo now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the specimens he examined were collected near Makanza (then called Bangala) and Yambuya.

The pedicels have clasping bracts that are 2 millimeters long and covered in rust-colored hair.

Male flowers have stamens that consist of an anther without a stalk (filament).

Female flowers have hairy, irregularly cylindrical carpels that are truncated at the top.

The fruit are oblong to elliptical, with wedge shaped bases and tips and are 5-8 by 2.5-3.2 centimeters.

[5] Bioactive compounds extracted from its tissues, have been reported to have antiplasmodial activity in laboratory tests using cultured Plasmodium falciparum.