This species is characterized by its flattened stems, elliptic to ovate or sometimes obovate leaves, caducous, triangular, interpetiolar stipules that are shortly aristate, terminal cymose inflorescences with flattened peduncles, very short calyx limbs, blue to violet salverform corollas with cylindrical tubes 5-6 mm long and lobes 3-4 mm long, and oblate fruits 4-5 x 7-8 mm. The leaves are remarkably variable in size, especially in subsp. tamberlikiana. The secondary veins are widely looping in a submarginal vein. The leaves are somewhat stiff-textured and have short to well developed petioles and rounded to acute bases. The stipules are held erect and pressed together in bud, and appear calyptrate on some specimens. The inflorescences are subtended by developed leaves, and have been considered sessile with three fasciculate peduncles by some authors, and "sessile and tripartite" by Standley. The peduncles are not articulated. The flowers are subsessile in short dichasial cymes. The specimens often dry yellowed.
Faramea tamberlikiana is variable across its range, with some geographic pattern. Leaf form has been used to distinguish this species, in particular the leaf base and petiole development, and these these characters do vary in general and in some correlation with regions and habitat. Faramea tamberlikiana is similar to and probably related to Faramea sessilifolia, which differs in its mostly subsessile leaves that are rounded to usually cordulate or sometimes deeply cordate at the base. Faramea sessilifolia is found in seasonal vegetation, gallery forest, and seasonally inundated areas, while Faramea tamberlikiana is found in wet forest, in both upland and seasonally inundated vegetation. The development of the petiole and leaf base shape are variable in each of these species, and some specimens of each are intermediate in form and classified partly based on habitat and the region where they were collected. These two species overlap in range in the western Amazon basin. These species do appear to be generally distinct; whether these intermediates are hybrids or these are better considered to be subspecies of the same species will require field study. Also, occasional plants from the western Amazon basin have notably large leaves; these have been separated as Faramea amplifolia, but appear only to be variant plants and that species is not separated here.
Faramea tamberlikiana also includes two regional groups, subsp. tamberlikiana in Amazonian South America and subsp. sessifolia in Central America and Pacific Colombia. The Central American plants were separated by various authors as Faramea sessifolia based on their subsessile leaves with truncate to cordate leaves and geographis separation from Faramea tamberlikiana. The Central American plant are characterized by subsessile leaves with the bases truncate to cordate and a habitat in very wet forest. Leaf form and petiole development are now documented as variable in these Central American plants, to obtuse and developed, respectively, and these are also documented in a continuous distribution from Costa Rica to the Pacific coast of Colombia. The Central American plants were treated by Taylor (Taylor, 2002; Lorence et al., 2012) as a subspecies of the South American Faramea tamberlikiana, which is variable in leaf form and found in wet habitats. Further study may show these regional populations are better regarded as distinct species, but no morphological characters have yet been found that separate them.
Faramea tamberlikiana is similar to Faramea sessilifolia, as discussed above. Faramea tamberlikiana is similar to Faramea yavitensis, which has regularly developed bracts, longer lobed calyx limbs, and white corollas. Faramea tamberlikiana is also similar to Faramea paniculata, which is apparently allopatric and has stiffer-textured leaves, inflorescences with a single peduncle, and larger flowers. Faramea tamberlikiana is also similar to Faramea acuminiatissima of northwestern Brazil, which may be only a narrow-leaved form of Faramea tamberlikiana.
The name Faramea rectinervia was widely used for this species by Standley (in sched.) and treated as a synonym of Faramea tamberlikiana by Taylor (various references), but clarification of the identity of Faramea juruana shows that Faramea rectinervia is a synonym of that last species. Faramea tamberlikiana is similar to Faramea juruana, which has leathery leaves with the venation not well marked, peduncles that are articulated near the base, and white flowers.