Melicope adscendens is a sprawling shrub with new growth densely covered in yellowish to golden-brown puberulence. The branches are long and slender, initially grayish pubescent, but tend to become glabrate, although pubescence remains persistent in the axils. The leaves are simple and opposite, spaced widely along the branches. The blades are elliptic, elliptic-ovate, or elliptic-oblong, measuring 1.5–6.5 cm in length and 1–4 cm in width. The apex is rounded and either emarginate or minutely mucronulate, while the base ranges from emarginate to subcordate. The upper surfaces of the leaves are glabrous, while the lower surfaces are initially minutely puberulent but soon become glabrate. The leaves are coriaceous to chartaceous with entire margins. The primary lateral veins consist of approximately 14 pairs, with pinnate venation connected by an arched submarginal vein, forming a reticulate pattern in higher-order venation. Petioles are 6–16 mm long, and stipules are absent. The flowers appear 1–3 at a time in slender, delicate, elongated axillary cymes. The peduncles measure 13–17 mm long, and the pedicels range from 4–8(–14) mm long. Bracteoles are approximately 1.4 mm long and puberulent, with those at the base of the pedicels being similar but less than 1 mm long. The flowers are functionally unisexual, and the plants are monoecious. The calyx comprises four sepals, and the corolla comprises four deltate, valvate petals. There are eight stamens arranged in 2 whorls, distinct. In staminate flowers, the sepals and petals are ovate and minutely puberulent. The nectary disk is also minutely puberulent, and the ovary is rudimentary and glabrous. The ovary, superior and 4-celled, in pistillate flowers, is unknown, with connate carpels, only slightly distinct at the apex to almost entirely distinct, and ovules are 2 per cell, hemitropous, one ascending. The style terminates in 4 short stigmatic branches. The fruit is 14–15 mm wide, subtended by persistent sepals and petals, and comprises 7–7.5 mm long distinct follicles. The exocarp is glabrous, with 2–3 concentric wrinkles, and the endocarp is also glabrous. The carpels dehisce along the upper suture. Seeds are 1–2 per cell, glossy black when ripe, crustaceous, and ovoid, sometimes angled from compression. The embryo is straight, embedded in fleshy endosperm, with a short radicle and compressed, ovate cotyledons. The putamen is brown and warty. It grows in Olopua Lowland Mesic Forest with halapepe as a co‐dominant between 914-1,200 meters.