Colubrina asiatica is a species of weakly climbing or scandent shrubs and occasionally trees. The stems can grow 10 cm long, with young branches often exhibiting a zigzag pattern. The leaves are simple and alternate, featuring ovate blades that range from 3.5 to 11.5 cm in length and 1.5 to 7 cm in width. The leaf apex is acuminate, and the base varies from broadly rounded to shallowly cordate. The surfaces of the leaves are glabrous or nearly so, with the lower surfaces sometimes having scattered hairs along the veins. The leaves are thin and glossy, with margins of 15–34 subappressed to rounded serrations, each tooth bearing a minute gland and a dark, deciduous mucro. The flowers are generally found in clusters of about 6 to 10 within short thyrses, with peduncles measuring 2 to 4 mm in length and pedicels that vary in size, elongating to 5 to 15(–20) mm in fruit. The flowers are usually bisexual (perfect), with some upper ones in the thyrse appearing staminate and actinomorphic (radially symmetric). The calyx comprises five deltate sepals, and the corolla consists of five petals, 1.2 to 1.4 mm long. The species has five stamens, with an ovary partly inferior and 3-celled. The fruit is drupaceous, globose, somewhat membranous, and measures approximately 7 to 8 mm long, quickly dehiscing initially loculicidally. The seeds are dull brown, about 4 to 5 mm long, with a thick and bony seed coat. It predominantly occupies coastal lowland and strand habitats, thriving at elevations ranging from 0-100 meters.