This species is circumscribed more narrowly here than by previous authors. It is characterized by a lianescent to clambering habit, well developed peduncles, subcapitate to quite shortly branched inflorescences with numerous broadly triangular to ovate, persistent bracts 2-7 mm long, calyx limbs 1.8-2 mm long, corollas with the tube 13-19 mm long and lobes 4-5 mm long, fruits 14-20 x 9-11 mm, and a habitat in very wet vegetation and usually in areas that are seasonally inundated. The flowers characteristically are subtended by 1-5 bracts that are borne below and on the ovary, and are membranaceous. 

Guettarda aromatica is here separated from Guettarda grandiflora, which is found widely across the central Amazon basin and has a a branched dichasial inflorescence, narrowly triangular to linear bracts 1-5 mm long with many of them deciduous, calyx limbs 1-2.2 mm long, a corolla with the tube 11-25 mm long and lobes 3-7 mm long, and fruits ca. 18-10 x 9-10 mm. Guettarda grandiflora is much more commonly collected. These have been combined in the central and western Amazon basin for some time (e.g., Klug 3946, a specimen of Guettarda grandiflora but identified as Guettarda aromatica by Standley in the 1930's; Steyermark, 1972: 366).