M. Thulin (1993) Adenia in Flora of Somalia 1: 210-213
Plants erect perennial herbs, shrublets with or without tendrils, or woody climbers with tendrils, usually with a conspicuous rootstock or tuber, sometimes armed, usually unisexual (species usually dioecious). Leaves simple, entire, lobed, or palmately divided; glands usually present at the base of the blades or near the top of the petioles, sometimes also elsewhere on the lower surfaces of the blades. Inflorescences cymose, those of female plants with fewer flowers than those of male plants. Flowers unisexual, with a hypanthium, usually greenish yellow, sometimes white, glabrous; hypanthia campanulate to tubular; petals smaller than the sepals, 4-5, usually with fringed margins; coronas composed of a laciniate rim of hairs or absent; discs of 5 strap-shaped glands or absent. Male flowers: stamens free or partially united; pistillode 1, rudimentary. Female flowers: usually smaller than male flowers, staminodes subulate; ovaries glabrous; styles 3(-5) free or partially united; stigmas strongly divided or papillate. Fruits capsules or berries.
Adenia includes about 105 species. It is most numerous in Africa and Madagascar but is also known from the Arabian Peninsula and from southern Asia through southeast Asia to northern Australia.