Clermontia peleana subsp. peleana is an epiphytic shrub or tree that features repeatedly branched, spreading stems that are light gray or light brown, with a solid pith and white, viscous latex. Its leaves are simple and alternate, with blades 13–20 cm long and 3–5 cm wide, having an acuminate or cuspidate apex and a cuneate, obtuse, or rounded base, with the lower surfaces green and suffused with purple. The flowers are on 1.4–1.7 cm long peduncles, with 3–4.5 cm long pedicels. These flowers are bisexual, epigynous, zygomorphic (bilaterally symmetric), resupinate, and protandrous, featuring a hypanthium of 1–1.5 cm in length and diameter. The calyx has triangular lobes, and the corolla is unilabiate, dark purple, and glossy, extending 5–7.2 cm in length. The stamens are syngenesious (arrangement of stamens where their anthers are fused while their filaments are free) and strongly exserted, with dark purple or rarely greenish white anthers. The fruit is a subglobose berry, 2.5–3 cm in length, containing numerous tiny, dark brown or black seeds with a minutely foveate-reticulate surface and a straight, short to spatulate dicotyledonous embryo embedded in oily endosperm. It thrives on the windward slopes of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, primarily growing on Metrosideros polymorpha, Acacia koa, and other large trees in montane rain forests at 530–1150 meters.