Melicope adscendens is a sprawling shrub with long, slender branches covered with gray hairs when young and becoming hairless when older. New growth is covered with many fine, yellowish to golden brown hairs. The opposite, widely spaced, leathery to papery, elliptic leaves measure 1.5 to 6.5 cm (0.6 to 2.6 in) long and 1 to 4 cm (0.4 to 1.6 in) wide with petioles 0.6 to 1.6 cm (0.2 to 0.6 in) long. Both upper and lower surfaces of mature leaves are hairless. Flowers occur on 13 to 17 mm (0.5 to 0.7 in) stalks (peduncles) from the point of leaf attachment in groups of one to three flowers, each on an individual shorter stalk (pedicel). Female flowers consist of four sepals about 3.5 mm (0.1 in) long, four petals about 5 mm (0.2 in) long, an eight-lobed nectary disk, eight reduced and nonfunctional stamens, and a hairless four-celled ovary. Male flowers are small (petals about 5 mm (0.2 in) long) with tiny hairs. The fruit is apocarpous (breaking easily into four distinct sections), smooth on the outside, 14 to 15 mm (0.54 to 0.59 in) wide, and subtended by persistent petals and other floral parts (sepals).