PLants shortly rhizomatous perennials; roots fibrous, thin or moderaly thick; shootstufterd, sparsely to densly branched, erect to ascending or prostrate, up tp 35 cm tall; internodes sometimes purple; foliage usually somewhat glaucous. Leaves with sheaths 0.8-4.5 cm long, usually not auriculate at the summit, sometimes overlapping basally, sometimes purple-veined, puberulous; blades sessile, linear, 4-12(-16) cm long, 0.2-1 cm wide, puberulous to pilose or subglabrous, bases oblique, cuneate, tips acuminate. Spathes subsessile, usually clustered, rarely solitary, about 1.2-1.5(-2.5) cm long, 0.8-1(-1.5) cm wide, usually strongly falcate or recurved, puberulous or hirsute-puberulous bases whitish, tips acuminate; lower cincinnuses with 2-3 flowers, upper cincinuses lacking. Flowers bisexual; paired sepals fused into a cup; paired petals usually lilac or mauve, rarelly white (?or blue ), lower petals linear-lanceolate, minute, colourless. Capsules about 3-4 mm long, 2.5-5 mm, wider than long when all seeds developed, 3 celled- cells 1-seeded, dorsal cells verrucase to spinulose, indehiscent, ventral cells smooth, dehiscent; seeds of ventral cells ovate-subquadrate, 2.5-3 mm long 2-2.5 mm wide; seed coats dark brown, smooth, farinose, with varying amounts of soft, tan, or whitish material arranged in a torus, or partial torus, around the seed.
Commlina albescens grows in bushland and grassland, often in rocky ground, sometimes on alluvial plaints, rarely on dunes, silty, or sany soil at 90-1465 m. It is known from all regions of the Flora of Somalia and from Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Northern Tanzania, and in Arabia.