Mato palo Erect, parasitic shrub; stems terete, to 70 cm long; periderm rufous-scaly but glabrescent. Leaves glabrous; petioles short, to 5 mm long; blades +/- ovate, rounded at apex and base, slightly decurrent on petiole, not at all clasping stem, 4-9 cm long, 3-5.5 (rarely 9) cm wide, coriaceous, drying brownish; venation palmate, the midvein not reaching apex, the principal vein usually branching. Spikes axillary, usually 2 per axil, 2-3.5 cm long, sessile or on rufous peduncles to 5 mm long; rachis becoming more than 3 mm wide in fruit, reddish, scaly; flowers sunken into pockets in rachis, oblique to the rachis; margins of bracteoles united with rachis, appearing indistinct from rachis; flowers minute, bisexual, greenish; tepals 6; stamens 6, the filaments fused to tepals; anthers strongly dimorphic, the 2 inner pollen sacs much smaller than the outer ones; style 1. Fruits ovoid-oblong, ca 5 mm long, greenish, sometimes with yellowish base, the apex exceeded by the margin of the persistent, oily calyculus; seed 1, obdeltoid, ca 2 mm long, drying black. Croat 6566. Frequent along the shore and at the edges of clearings. Flowers and fruits throughout the year. This species was confused with O. spicatus (Jacq.) Eichl. in the Flora of Panama by Rizzini (1960) and by Standley in the Flora of Barro Colorado Island (1933). O. spicatus ranges from Guatemala to Venezuela, Brazil, and Peru. It has not been reported from Panama, but is to be expected, since it occurs in Colombia (Chocó).