Lianas or small trees with scandent branches; stems 4-or 5-angled, glabrous; tendrils present on new growth; wood simple. Leaves pinnately 5-foliolate; peti-ole and rachis wingless; leaflets narrowly oblong-lanceolate to ovate or elliptic-lanceolate, sharply acuminate, obtuse or acute to rounded at the base, 9-15 cm long, 2.5-4(-7) cm wide, glabrous, barbulate in the vein axils beneath, entire or serrate to serrate-dentate above the middle, the teeth glandular; stipules decidu-ous, oblong, bluntly acute at the apex, 8-12 mm long, glabrous on the outer sur-face, densely appressed-puberulent within, conspicuously villous along the mar-gin. Inflorescences axillary, solitary, the thyrses in a slender raceme, to ca. 12 cm long. Flowers white, to 5 mm long, ca. 6.5 mm wide; sepals oblong-lanceolate, ca. 4 mm long, glabrous; petals obovate-elliptic, 5-6 mm long, glabrous, the scale of the anterior petals ca. 4 mm long, pilose on the margin, the deflexed appendage deltoid, densely white-bearded marginally, mostly in the lower 1/3, the crest bi-lobed or truncate, as long as the deflexed appendage, the lateral scales with the crest slender, rounded at the apex; disc glands higher than wide, concave out-side, appressed-pubescent in the lower half; bisexual flowers with the stamens to 4 mm long, the filaments flattened, basally united, sparsely arachnoid-pubescent; ovary 3-sided, glabrous, together with the style ca. 1 mm long. Fruits not known. The species is most similar to Paullinia pterocarpa and additional collections may show the two species to be synonymous. Paullinia allenii apparently differs from P. pterocarpa in having larger flowers, longer inflorescences, and deciduous, oblong, blunt stipules which are densely pubescent within. Paullinia allenii is also similar to P. subnuda Radlk. from Brazil and the Guianas. Although the fruit is unknown, it is believed to be similar to that of P. pterocarpa and P. subnuda, i.e., narrowly 3-winged, elliptic-obovate.
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