Alyxia stellata is a twining liana, scandent shrub, or small erect shrub with milky sap. It has ternate and sometimes opposite leaf arrangement, often both on the same stem. The blades are lanceolate, ovate, linear-lanceolate, elliptic, or suborbicular, measuring 0.7–6 cm in length and 0.8–3.5 cm in width, occasionally up to 9 cm by 4.3 cm. The leaf apex ranges from acuminate to rounded, sometimes retuse, with a base from cuneate to rounded. These leaves are glabrous, coriaceous, and somewhat brittle, with entire, often revolute margins. The petioles are short, 0.3–1 cm long, and stipules are absent. The leaves’ upper surfaces are glossy, while the lower surfaces are paler and emit a fragrance when crushed. The flowers occur in axillary, umbellate cymes containing 2 to 5 flowers, with peduncles 1–1.5 cm long. These flowers are bisexual (perfect) and subtended by minute bracts at the base of the 0.3–0.8 cm long pedicels. The calyx is deeply 5-lobed with ovate lobes that are partly folded and somewhat saccate at the base, measuring 0.9–1.5 mm long with scarious, puberulent margins. The corolla is salverform and greenish to yellowish white, 4–5 mm long, with lobes about 1.5–2 mm long. It contains five stamens inserted on the corolla tube. The ovary is superior and distinct, with 4–6 ovules per ovary; the style unites the ovaries, ending in a stigma with a tuft of hairs toward the apex. The fruits are drupes, ovoid, and often moniliform, consisting of 2–4 one-seeded joints. Seeds are elliptic and furrowed on the ventral side. It is found in dry, open sites to dense, wet forests between 0-2,000 meters.