Gouania meyenii is an erect to spreading shrub with stems 0.5–2.2 meters long, characterized by young growth that is yellowish-brown and pilose, becoming glabrate as it matures. The leaves are simple and alternate, with blades that are ovate to broadly elliptic or occasionally suborbicular, measuring 3–7.5 cm long and 1.6–4.5 cm wide. The leaf apex is short-acuminate to obtuse, often with a minute mucro or occasionally emarginate, while the base is rounded to broadly cuneate. The petioles are 0.8–5(–7) cm long. The upper surfaces of the leaves are glabrous, and the lower surfaces are sparsely appressed pilose, more densely so along the veins or only along the veins. The leaves are chartaceous, with entire margins, and are pinnately veined with 3–5 conspicuous veins spreading from the base. The leaves are petiolate, and stipules are linear-lanceolate, 1–4 mm long, densely yellowish brown pilose, and somewhat persistent. The flowers are arranged in axillary cymes that are 20–80 mm long, with peduncles 30–60 mm long and linear-lanceolate to narrowly deltate bracts about 1–1.5 mm long. The flowers are possibly unisexual and monoecious. The pedicels are 1–12 mm long. The calyx consists of 5 white sepals that are 1.5–3 mm long. The corolla has five white petals, each 1.2–1.8 mm long, each enclosing a stamen. There are five stamens opposite the petals, with filaments distinct and adnate to the base of the petals. The ovary is inferior and 3(4)-celled, apparently sometimes abortive, with one basal and erect anatropous ovule per cell and a 3-lobed style. The fruit is 9–16 mm long, glabrate to sparsely puberulent, and either 2-winged or occasionally 3-winged, with the wings extending throughout the fruit but somewhat wider toward the apex, measuring about (3–)4–5 mm wide. The apex and base of the fruit are notched. The seeds are brown, glossy, ellipsoid, and approximately 4–6 mm long. It is found in dry or moist forests and shrublands around 810 meters.