Cyrtandra tintinnabula is a shrub that can reach heights of 1–2 meters. The stems are rounded to angular and can be pubescent with multicellular hairs or glabrate. The leaves are simple and opposite, appearing on the stem’s upper 3–6 nodes. Each leaf within a pair may be slightly unequal and ranges from symmetrical to somewhat asymmetrical. The leaves are chartaceous and broadly elliptic to ovate, measuring 13–26 cm long and 5–12.3 cm wide. The apex is long-acuminate, while the base ranges from broadly cuneate to truncate. The upper surfaces of the leaves are sparsely hirtellous, and the lower surfaces range from sparse to moderately villous, particularly along the veins. Young leaves tend to have more dense yellowish-brown pubescence. The leaf margins are dentate to serrate. Petioles measure 5.3–10.5 cm long, are moderately short–villous, and sometimes clasp the stem or appear perfoliate. No stipules are present. The flowers occur in umbelliform cymes of 3–6, emerging from the leaf axils. These are densely villous, with peduncles measuring 10–18 mm long and pedicels spanning 5–15 mm. Bracts are foliaceous, distinct, or occasionally connate and are broadly ovate or cordate, measuring 9–15 mm long. The flowers themselves are bisexual (perfect) and display a nearly actinomorphic (radially symmetric) calyx that is pale green, campanulate, measuring 9–10 mm long, and split ¼–⅓ its length into broadly deltate lobes. These lobes are conspicuously reflexed and densely villous on both surfaces. The corolla is typically bilabiate and white, with a cylindrical tube approximately 12 mm long and 5 mm in diameter, densely villous. It features a two-lobed upper lip and a three-lobed lower lip, with the lobes being subequal and rhombic–orbicular, each about 3 mm long. The ovary is glabrous. Half of the stamens are fertile and inserted midway up the corolla tube. The fertile anthers are coherent and positioned in the throat of the corolla tube. The ovary is superior, oblong–ovoid, and 2-carpellate, with parietal placentation. The style is approximately 2 mm long and sparsely puberulent, ending in a two-lobed, capitate stigma. It is found in wet forests between 730-1,040 meters.