This cultivar of unidentified parentage is a large size (20 inches high) plant with moderately corrugated foliage that has a heart shaped base. It produces funnel-shaped, pale lavender flowers in late July into mid-August. It was registered in 1987 jointly by The American Hosta Society and Dr. Nils Hylander of Sweden.

According to The Hostapedia by Mark Zilis (2009), this cultivar "...has become a non-entity in the nursery trade. It can be thought of as the green-leaved version of 'Fortunei Aureomarginata'."

Nomenclature changes recommended in the 1991 book The Genus Hosta by W. George Schmid and accepted by The American Hosta Society would update names as follows: H. fortunei 'Obscura' is now H. 'Fortunei Obscura' and H. fortunei 'Obscura Aureomarginata' would be H. 'Fortunei Aureomarginata'.

An article by Warren I. Pollock in The Hosta Journal (1985 Vol. 16) states that, "In a private garden in Uppsala, Sweden, Hylander found a hosta that he named H. fortunei 'Obscura'...Hylander didn't explain why he selected the name "obscura," but I would guess that it refers to the hosta's obscure origin...In the same garden Hylander found a handsome yellow-margined form...he named H. fortunei 'Obscura Marginata'...in Europe, it is called H. fortunei 'Obscura Marginata' and also H. fortunei 'Aureo-marginata', although in Britain the names 'Yellow Edge' and 'Sprengeri' have been used on occasion...In the U.S., this hosta goes under three names: H. fortunei 'Obscura Aureo-marginata', 'Aureo-marginata' and 'Golden (or Gold) Crown'. I was told by one nursery that they sell the same hosta under any of these names."