Plants scandent shrubs to climbers, up to 3 m tall; stems glabrous, reddish when young, becoming grey, somewhat angled and ridged. Leaves petiolate; petioles 1-10 mm long; blades ovate, glabrous, up to 4.5 cm long and 2.5 cm wide, bases truncate to subcordate. margins somewhat dentate, tips acute to apiculate. Inflorescences pedunculate; peduncles 3-10 mm long; flowering portion 1.5-4 cm long, much branched, glabrous. Flowers pedicellate, glabrous; pedicels 2-4 mm long; calyces about 1.2 mm wide; petals yellowish green, glabrous, about 2 mm long. Fruits ellipsoid, 10-12 mm long, 5-7 mm in diameter, dark purple and glaucous when ripe; seeds elliptic in outline, compressed, 8-9 mm long, 5-6 mm wide, smooth apart from the dorsal ridge.
Cissus aphylla is known from regions C2 and S1-3 of the Flora of Somallia and from eastern Ethiopia and Kenya. It is used in Somalia to cure scabies.