Ipomoea tuboides is a perennial vine known for its ability to either sprawl prostrate or twine upwards. The stems are typically green or brownish-red, adorned with small green protuberances, becoming woody near the base, and are glabrous except on the youngest parts. It has simple, alternate leaves with chartaceous, cordate to broadly ovate blades measuring 10–15 cm in length and width. The leaves feature an obtuse, mucronulate apex and a cordate base with glabrous surfaces. The margins are entire, toothed, or lobed. Petioles extend 5–10 cm in length, and stipules are absent. The flowers appear solitary, typically axillary, supported by peduncles longer than the leaves, with pedicels spanning 50–80 mm. The flowers are bisexual (perfect) and actinomorphic (radially symmetric), consisting of five distinct and imbricate sepals. These sepals are herbaceous to subcoriaceous and range from 9–22 mm long, often becoming reflexed in fruit and are persistent, with occasional accrescence. The corolla fuses into five petals, forming a salverform structure, white at night during blooming and turning lavender upon wilting. The corolla tube measures 6–8 cm in length and less than 0.5 cm in diameter, with a campanulate to subrotate limb spanning 7–8 cm in diameter. It has five stamens inserted at the base of the corolla tube, and they are distinct, with linear or oblong, extrorse anthers. The ovary is superior and typically 2–4-carpellate, with a filiform style that may be simple or bifid and a globose or 2–3-lobed stigma. The fruit is a brown, ovoid capsule, 1–2 cm long, glabrous, and dehisces via four to six valves or splits irregularly. It contains 1–4 dark brown, ovoid, trigonous seeds that are approximately 8–9 mm long, covered with short erect hairs. The endosperm is absent or scanty and cartilaginous, with usually foliaceous cotyledons. It is found on arid, rocky talus slopes or ‘a’a lava between 0-610 meters.