The oval leaves are dark-green above, and whitish with stellate hairs beneath, the margin entire and slightly recurved.
Its integument is marked by a large number of transverse grooves simulating the segmentation of Annelids, and near the anterior extremity close to the mouth are two pairs of recurved chitinous hooks.
The proboscis bears rings of recurved hooks arranged in horizontal rows, and it is by means of these hooks that the animal attaches itself to the tissues of its host.
These horns, which are of a more or less conical form and usually recurved, and often grow to a great length (three or even four feet), are composed of a solid mass of hardened epidermic cells growing from a cluster of long dermal papillae.
Sharp, recurved teeth are carried by the mandibles, the pterygoids, palatines, maxillaries, and in the Pythoninae by the premaxillaries also.