This species is characterized by its generally robust, stiff-textured, obovate leaves that are subsessile and truncate to cordulate at the base, triangular stipules with well developed aristas, generally terminal, lax, pedunculate inflorescences with the secondary axes whorled and the flowers subsessile to shortly pedicellate in dichasial groups, short truncate or denticulate calyx limbs, white corollas with tubes ca. 20 mm long and narrow lobes ca. 14 mm long, and subglobose to oblate fruits 10-14 mm in diameter. The leaves have widely looping, weak to developed submarginal veins and finely reticulated raised higher-order venation. The leaves vary widely in size and shape, in particular whether widest near, above, or below the middle. The peduncles are articulated near the base. The plants appear to flush the leaves and inflorescences together. The specmens of Faramea subsessilis characteristically dry gray. This species has been collected occasionally across a rather wide range, and perhaps is found in some areas of unusual ecology.

The identity of Faramea subsessilis has been unclear until recently. It was described based apparently on a single specimen at MA with a partial, broken infructescence. The type was collected in the Huallaga River valley, and one sterile and only apparently unicate specimen, Schunke 5322 (NY), has subsequently been collected in that region and has leaves that are markedly different in shape from the type. This species was later documented by several flowering and fruiting collections from Colombia and Ecuador, and those three collections were described as Faramea verticillata. More collections are now available from Ecuador, Brazil, and Peru, and these two species cannot be separated by any evident character and are synonymized here. The flowers of the plants from the Huallaga valley in Peru have still not been documented, and these may be found some day to differ from those of the Colombian plants and thus support the separation again of these species.

Faramea subsessilis is similar to Faramea torquata, with smaller petiolate leaves. Faramea subsessilis is also similar to Faramea percyanea of eastern Brazil, with well developed pedicels and smaller flowers. Faramea subsessilis is also similar to Faramea sessilifolia and Faramea tamberlikiana, which both differ in their smaller flowers and fruits. Faramea subsessilis is also similar to Faramea cazadorensis of western Venezuela, which has smaller leaves and inflorescences and fewer flowers borne on longer pedicels.