Canavalia galeata is a perennial climbing plant with twining branches. The leaves are compound and alternate, with oblong-ovate to ovate or elliptic leaflets measuring 4.5–16 cm in length and 1.9–8 cm in width. The leaflet apex is bluntly acuminate to caudate, and the base ranges from truncate to broadly cuneate. The surfaces of the leaflets are sparsely appressed pubescent, typically becoming glabrate as they age, and the leaflets are chartaceous. Margins are entire and wavy. It has petiolate leaflets with small, caducous stipules and minute leaflet stipels. It features 4–14(–18) flowers in axillary pseudoracemes that are 2–10 cm long. The flowers are papilionaceous with bracteoles that are present but caducous. The calyx is often flecked with short purple streaks and measures 9–21 mm long, featuring sparsely to moderately appressed pubescence. The calyx is bilabiate and 5-lobed, with a distinctly large upper lip and a trifid lower lip. The corolla is dark purple with a white spot and streaks at the base, measuring 36–38 mm long. There are ten stamens, with the upper stamen distinct at the base and loosely adhering to the other nine connected into a tube. The ovary is superior and stipitate, with 5–20 ovules. The style is incurved and glabrous, with a small, terminal stigma. The fruits are compressed pods 9.5–13 cm long and 2.5–3.2 cm wide. These pods are initially inconspicuously appressed puberulent, becoming sparsely so with age. Each valve of the pod has a longitudinal sutural ridge and an additional longitudinal ridge 2–4mm below the upper suture. The seeds are reddish brown, darkening with age, oblong-elliptic, and strongly compressed, measuring 17–20 mm long and 11–13 mm wide. The hilum is elongated and oblong, with a small, papery, persistent rim-aril. It is scattered primarily in mesic forests that may be degraded by guava or other alien vegetation or occasionally in Lantana shrubland at elevations between 180-800 meters.