Capa Rosa is an evergreen tree which may grow to 15 meters tall. The young twigs are four-sided and whitish.
Leaves are opposite, entire, broadest at the middle, and taper to both ends.
They are 8 to 35 centimeters long and 3 to 7 centimeters wide, green on the upper surface, densely white scurfy below, and borne on a petiole about 2.2 centimeters in length. The inflorescence is branched and has numerous, small, whitish flowers each with a four-lobed corolla about .3 centimeter long. Fruits are white when young but become purplish upon maturity, and are .5 centimeter in diameter, with the calyx attached at the base. Capa rosa was described by Schauer in 1847 from specimens collected in 1827 by Wydler at an unknown location in Pueto Rico. The St. Thomas record may be a questionable report.