Friis & Immelman is a softly woody dioecious liane, sometimes epiphytic, climbing to 20 m, often to the canopy and hanging in festoons.

[1][2] Attaching by adventitious roots, its stems are up to 10 cm in diameter, are occasionally armed with stinging hairs and exude copious and clear potable sap when cut.

Fruit is a small nut or achene, glabrous, 1.5–2 mm long, enclosed in persistent, fleshy, orange/red perianth lobes.

The bark of this species supplies fibre for rope-making and is used for fishing lines in Nigeria and DR Congo, where it is also cooked as a vegetable.

[3] The leaves are used in the treatment of scabies in Cameroon, and chewed to allay nausea and intestinal disorders, while water flowing from cut stems is drunk to treat rapid heart beat or tachycardia.