Plants shrubs of trees up to 7 m tall. Stems glabrous. Leaves simple, glabrous; petioles 10-30 mm long; blades 20-55 mm long, 13-30 mm wide, elliptic to ovated or obovate, midrib conspicuous on the lower surface, tip usually obtuse. Inflorescences short, corymbose racemes. Pedicels 6-18 mm long; receptacles (7-)9-20 mm long, cylindrical; sepals 4, 14-20 mm long; petals absent; stamens many, androgynophore in fruit exceeding the receptacle by 2-5 mm; ovary 4-6 mm long on a gynophore 23-20 mm long in fruit. Fruits up to 1.3(-2.2) cm long and about 1 cm in diameter, markedly torulose, many-seeded.
Maerua angolensis grows in deciduous bushland at elevations of 30-1800 m. It is known from region N1 of Somaliland and S2 and S3 of Somalia and east to Senegal and south to South Africa.