Descripción: Plantas trepadoras o lianas con el tronco cilíndrico y cubierto de lenticelas granulares. Ramitas con pelos amarillos y savia lechosa, también con zarcillos saliendo de los nudos. Hojas bipinnadas y alternas, con 9 folíolos, opuestos. Los folíolos de 2-7 x 1-3.5 cm, ovados a obovados, con ápice agudo o acuminado, bordes dentados, crenados o lobulados y base decurrente. Los folíolos presentan pelos por el envés. Estípulas pequeñas. Pecíolo no alado. Raquis alado. Inflorescencias axilares. Flores blancas. Frutos alados, de 1-2 x 1-1.5 cm, verdes, tornándose rojos o anaranjados al madurar. Semillas 1 ó 3, envueltas en la base por un arilo blanco.

Especies Parecidas: A menudo se confunde con LK paulg2 Paullinia glomerulosa LK2 , pero en P. glomerulosa las hojas presentan 11 folíolos, los cuales son glabros y de color verde lustroso.

Tendriled liana; stems terete, inconspicuously pubescent and bearing many small lenticels; tendrils borne on a short branch, usually bifid. Leaves biternate, to 12 cm long; petioles with a raised pubescent margin on upper surface; rachis narrowly winged, the wing sometimes widest in apical half; blades +/- elliptic or oblanceolate, bluntly acute to acuminate (rarely rounded to emarginate) at apex, attenuate to base, sparsely crenate, glabrous above except on sharply raised midrib, glabrate below but with tufts of trichomes in axils, the terminal leaflets 3-9 cm long, 3.3 (5) cm wide. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, borne often on the same short branches as the tendrils, to 10 cm long and 1 cm wide; pedicels short, 1.5-2.5 mm long at anthesis, puberulent, articulate about middle or above; flowers with a faint, very sweet aroma, ca 2.5-3.5 mm long; sepals sparsely to moderately appressed-pubescent, boat-shaped, rounded at apex; petals white, the glands of all 4 petals ovoid, yellow to orange, the scales of the anterior petals to 1.5 mm long, about as broad as long, the reflexed appendage densely bearded, the scale crest slender, 0.7 mm long, often as long as reflexed appendage; stamens 8, the staminate flowers with the short stamens to 1.5 mm long, the longer stamens to 2.5 mm long, the pistillate flowers with the stamens ca 1.5 mm long, about as long as ovary; anthers narrowly ellipsoid; pollen golden-brown, tacky; pistil small, well concealed by the densely pubescent filaments; stigmas 3, short, 0.7 mm long. Capsules suborbicular to broadly obovate, to 2 cm long, red, sharply 3-angled, glabrate to sparsely pubescent, short-stipitate, +/- beaked at apex, the medial crest sharply raised, the wings 7-8 mm wide; seeds 1-3, oblong, shiny, black, the lower half enclosed in a white aril. Croat 13235,13809.