Cyrtandra filipes, a member of the Gesneriaceae (African violet) family, is a shrub about 1 m (3.3 ft) tall, with stems apparently few-branched. The leaves are in whorls of 3 to 4 per node, rarely opposite, closely spaced, and born on the upper 3 to 7 nodes. The leaves are asymmetrical, thin and soft, oblanceolate (inversely lance-shaped, with the broadest point above the middle and tapering to the base) to elliptic (widest at the midpoint, with rounded ends), 10 to 21 cm (4 to 8 in) long, 2.5 to 6 cm (1 to 2.4 in) wide; the upper surface is very sparsely strigose (straight, appressed, sometimes bulbous-based hairs, all pointing in more or less the same direction) or nearly without hairs and the lower surface very sparsely bearing hairs or without hairs. The flowers are solitary, or rarely two, in cymes (inflorescences characterized by having the terminal flower bloom first), arising in the leaf axils (the point between the stem and a leaf petiole or a branch). The calyx (a collective term for all of the sepals of a flower) is zygomorphic (bilaterally symmetrical), pale green, and 7 to 12 mm (0.3 to 0.5 in) long. The corolla (all of the petals of a flower, collectively) is white, curved near the middle, 12 to 16 mm (0.5 to 0.6 in) long, and 4 mm (0.2 in) in diameter. The berries are white, narrowly ellipsoid, and 1.8 to 2.5 mm (0.7 to 1.0 in) long.