Nothocestrum latifolium is a small tree that can grow up to 10 meters tall and is characterized by a gnarled trunk and rigid, ascending branches. These branches, covered with ochraceous tomentum in their youth, become glabrate as the tree ages. The leaves are simple and alternate, with broad variability in shape ranging from broadly ovate to obovate–oblong or suborbicular and occasionally narrowly elliptic. These leaves are relatively large, measuring 4–20 cm in length and 3–7(–10) cm in width, with an apex that can be acute, obtuse, or rounded and a typically rounded base. The leaves are pubescent initially but become glabrate over time. They are generally thick, seasonally deciduous, and tend to cluster towards the ends of branches. The flowers are bisexual and actinomorphic (radially symmetric), forming clusters on short spurs. They possess a 4-lobed calyx that is either tomentose or glabrate and a greenish-yellow corolla with a tube about twice the length of the calyx. The corolla lobes are silky pubescent and less than half the length of the tube. It has four stamens, with filaments that are extremely short or absent and linear, acute anthers that open via longitudinal slits. The superior ovary is 2-celled and globose, with numerous ovules, and is accompanied by a style as long as the corolla tube and a 2-lobed stigma. The fruit is a yellowish-orange berry that is succulent and depressed–globose, measuring 4–6 mm in diameter. These berries protrude from the calyx and contain irregular seeds with a pitted seed coat, a curved embryo, and the presence of endosperm. It is found in dry to mesic forests between 460-1,530 meters.