Palicourea aschersoniana is characterized by its dense hirtellous to pilosulous pubescence, with the stem trichomes reflexed; medium-sized, petiolate leaves with finely bullulate blades and relatively numerous secondary veins; laminar, deeply lobed stipules with parallel sides and narrowly triangular lobes; shortly pedunculate, paniculiform inflorescences with the flowers borne in dichasial cymes and subtended by bracts 4--9 mm long; shallowly lobed calyx limbs ca. 0.5 mm long; tubular-funnelform, white to yellow corollas that are pilosulous externally with tubes 7--9 mm long; medium-sized, lanceoloid fruits that are weakly laterally flattened; and hemispherical pyrenes with four or five well developed, rounded, abaxial ridges and a slender medial groove. This species has been collected in a number of scattered localities across a rather broad range.
Palicourea aschersoniana is similar to and apparently closely related to several other species that are also found in premontane to usually high-montane elevations in the northern Andes; see the page for Palicourea aschersonianoides for a key to these.