This species is characterized by its medium-sized, petiolate, elliptic to elliptic-oblong or oblanceolate leaves, shortly sheathing and shortly aristate stipules, terminal, paniculiform, blue inflorescences, short dentate calyx limbs, somewhat small blue corollas with the tubes longer than the lobes, and medium-sized fruits that are oblate and laterally flattened. The leaf venation has the characteristic arrangement found in many Faramea species, with the secondary veins straight and connecting to form an equally well developed, undulating submarginal vein and one or more well developed intersecondary veins present between the pairs of secondary veins. The inflorescences are pedunculate and branched to several orders, with pedicellate flowers. Faramea suerrensis is commonly collected, and quite showy in flower.
The leaves of Faramea suerrensis are weakly to markedly bullate in life and usually have at least the secondary and submarginal veins impressed, but often are flat on dried specimens. This species shows a notable range of variation in leaf size, number of flowers in the inflorescence, diameter of the corolla tubes (at least on dried specimens), and especially leaf form. Leaf blade size varies widely, by nearly 300%, from 9-10 x 2.5-3 (e.g., Aguilar 49) to 25 x 10 cm (e.g., Beach 1505). Occasional plants from southern Costa Rica through western Panama have leaves that markedly impressed on the secondary, submarginal, and and intersecondary veins to densely bullulate; this form is sometimes quite distinctive, and was named as Faramea bullulata but is this leaf form is continuous with the more common, flatter-leaved form and no other characters separate these. Occasional plants in Costa Rica have relatively quite narrow leaves with the submarginal vein well developed but the secondary veins weakly marked (e.g., Fletes 415), but this form is not completely distinct; it is common in the Golfito region but found occasionally elsewhere as well, and has not been named formally and is not separated here.
Faramea suerrensis is diagnosed in part by its elliptic to broadly elliptic leaves that are petiolate and acute to rounded at the base, and this species shows some variation in these features. Petiole length varies on leaves with this form, and occasional plants with well developed petioles have leaf blades with rounded to truncate bases (e.g., Rueda et al. 5706, Nicaragua). A number of plants from southern Costa Rica and western Panama are similar to Faramea suerrensis but have subsessile, oblanceolate to elliptic, often relatively narrow leaves with broadly cordulate bases to cordate bases and strongly developed submarginal veins, and have been separated as Faramea trinervia. These plants are similar otherwise to Faramea suerrensis, but are distinctive and perhaps ecologically distinct in their leaf bases that clasp the stems. This leaf form is not entirely distinct from that of Faramea suerrensis, however, with some plants ahve truncate to weakly cordulate leaf bases and short to developed petioles (e.g., Folsom & Page 5968). These plants with subsessile to shortly petiolate leaves with cordulate to cordate bases are separated here in Faramea trinervia, but may not be distinct. Field work will be needed to evaluate this, and if they are not distinct then the name Faramea suerrensis becomes a synonym of Faramea trinervia.
Faramea suerrensis is similar to Faramea eurycarpa, which is sympatric and has less strongly developed, usually undulating submarginal veins and leaves that usually dry with a clear green color. Plants from Colombia were previously also included in Faramea suerrensis (Lorence et al., 2012), but are here separated as Faramea grandiflora.
Faramea suerrensis shows some morphological variation across its range, from Central America to western Colombia. Study of the Colombian plants now finds two species (Taylor & Jardim, 2020), Faramea suerrensis and Faramea foreroana, and two subspecies of Faramea suerreneis. The Colombian plants of Faramea suerrensis are not distinct from the Central American plants in their flowers, but they are geographically disjunct and morphologically partially separable in leaf form and size and fruit size. Because these populations of Faramea suerrensis have separate geographic ranges and are almost but not fully distinct morphologically, they agree with the taxonomic concept used here of subspecies (Taylor & Jardim, 2020). The Colombian plants of Faramea suerrensis are morphologically generally consistent, but the Central American plants are notably variable in leaf size and form, see Taylor & Jardim (2020) for more details.