Melicope wawraeana is a small tree reaching 2–7 m in height, with new growth densely covered in whitish to pale brown appressed pilose hairs and a waxy scurf, becoming glabrate as it matures. The leaves are simple and opposite, with blades that are elliptic, oblong–elliptic, or elliptic–obovate, measuring 4–20(–30) cm long and 2–9(–10) cm wide. The apex is rounded to obtuse, sometimes mucronulate or emarginate, while the base is rounded, cuneate, or weakly subcordate. The surfaces are glabrous, except for the sparsely and ephemerally puberulent midrib. The upper surface is glossy and medium green, while the lower surface is paler and thinly coriaceous. The margins are entire. Primary lateral veins are evident but not raised, initially slightly purplish and later turning greenish, usually numbering 12–15 pairs, connected by an arched vein 1–8 mm from the margin. The venation is pinnate, with lateral veins connected by an arched submarginal vein, and the higher-order venation forming a reticulate pattern. The petioles are 10–50 mm long, distinctly swollen at or near the midrib junction, minutely puberulent and scurfy, soon becoming glabrate. Stipules are absent. The flowers are arranged in axillary cymes containing 5–15(–21) flowers, with puberulent peduncles measuring 3–15 mm long, elongating up to 20 mm in fruit. Pedicels are 2–5 mm long, and the bracts are small and opposite. The calyx consists of four imbricate sepals. In staminate flowers, the sepals are deltate–ovate, approximately 3.5 mm long, and puberulent, while in pistillate flowers, the sepals are similar but slightly smaller at 3 mm long. The corolla consists of four valvate petals; in staminate flowers, the petals are deltate, 4–5 mm long, and glabrous, whereas in pistillate flowers, the petals are yellowish green, narrowly deltate–ovate, 3.5–4.5 mm long, and glabrous. There are eight stamens arranged in two whorls, distinct and reduced but always present in functionally pistillate flowers. The staminate flowers have a glabrate nectary disk, and the pistillate flowers have a similar glabrate nectary disk. The ovary is superior, 4-celled, and 4-lobed, with connate carpels, only slightly distinct at the apex to almost entirely distinct. The ovules are two per cell, hemitropous, with one ascending. The style terminates in four short stigmatic branches. The ovary in staminate flowers is minutely whitish puberulent, while in pistillate flowers, it is whitish puberulent with a minutely puberulent style. The fruit consists of dark green capsules, 6–7 mm long and 11–20 mm wide, with carpels almost completely connate or connate for (⅓–)½ their length, becoming somewhat reflexed at dehiscence. The capsules measure 6–9 mm long, with a puberulent exocarp that becomes somewhat glabrate. The endocarp is very sparsely puberulent along the suture or sometimes glabrous. The carpels dehisce along the upper suture. The seeds are 1–2 per carpel, measuring 5–8 mm long, glossy black when ripe, crustaceous, and ovoid, sometimes angled from compression. The embryo is straight in fleshy endosperm, with a short radicle and compressed, ovate cotyledons. The putamen is brown and warty. It is found in mesic forests between 360-950 meters.