Liana; trunk to 15 cm dbh; stems striate; pinnular rachises and inflorescences puberulent, otherwise +/- glabrous. Leaves bipinnate with 2-5 (mostly 3 or 4) pairs of pinnae; petiole and rachis lacking glands; leaflets in 5-7 pairs per pinna, oblong, rounded at both ends, oblique at base, 1.5-4 cm long, 0.5-1.8 cm wide. Inflorescences terminal racemes to 25 cm long, of many slender spikes to 10 cm long; flowers small, sessile or short-pedicellate, mostly white, but reportedly also reddish, with a foul odor; calyx cupulate, shallowly lobed to subentire, ca 1 mm long; corolla of 5 petals, the petals +/- free, 2.5-3 cm long, acute; stamens 10, somewhat exserted, ca 4 mm long. Legumes oblong, 15-30 (40) cm long, 5-7.5 cm wide, flat, thin, curved; exocarp thin, peeling away at maturity, the valves then breaking into narrow, wind-dispersed, transverse segments, each carrying a small seed; seeds ellipsoid, 1-1.4 cm long, shiny, brown. Foster 731, Starry 318. The transfer of Entada polystachya (L.) DC. to Adenopodia was convincingly argued by John Dixon (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale, 1965). Adenopodia and Entada as represented on BCI are two very different taxa both morphologically and ecologically.