Adenia fruticosa is a remarkable scrambling succulent shrub or shrubby tree, 1-2 m tall, occasionally to 6 m with a distinct cluster of grotesque, irregularly club-shaped, softly woody stems and unarmed branches.
The swollen stems are flask-shaped and smooth, up to 1 m in height and ending into a few thick whip-like branches. The bluish-green leaves are simple or digitately 3- or 5-foliolate. The flower is bell-shaped and the corona has fine dense hairs. The plants are dioecious (sexes on separate plants).