Functionally dioecious tree, to 11(25) m tall, the trunk usually less than 20 cm dbh; outer bark minutely roughened; inner bark reddish, forming minute, cloudy, viscid droplets; sap lacking typical burseraceous aroma; stems, petioles, rachises, inflorescence branches, and veins of leaflet pubescent, the trichomes stiff, erect, brownish, of varying lengths. Leaves pinnate; petioles 4-6.5 cm long, flattened on upper surface; leaflets (3) 5-7 (9), mostly oblong-elliptic, abruptly acuminate, obtuse to acute at base, slightly inequilateral, 6-17 cm long, 2.5-8 cm wide. Flowers cream, 4-parted, in axillary panicles 1-13.5 cm long, often branched from near base; pedicels 1.5-3 mm long, puberulent; calyx bowl-shaped, broader than long, 1-2 mm long, shallowly lobed, the lobes acute to rounded; petals ca 3 mm long, narrowly ovate, acute and weakly spreading at apex; stamens 8, arising from beneath a prominent disk, the disk weakly lobed, half as high as ovary in pistillate flowers (2 mm tall), as high as ovary in staminate flowers; filaments inflexed; anthers held directly over style; pollen white, tacky; ovary ovoid, appressed-pubescent, much shorter than stamens; style +/- sessile; stigma 4-lobed. Capsules drupaceous, +/- ovoid, 1.5-2 cm long, violet-purple to brownish, sparsely lenticellate, obtuse at both ends, the valves 2 (5), one falling free; pyrene 1, tan, 1-seeded, ca 1 cm long, falling free from funiculus (this ca 5 mm from apex) and suspended on a narrow band of tissue, enveloped in a white, sweet, fleshy aril displayed against the bright red inner valve surface. Croat 8262, 14926. Rare, in the older forest along Zetek and Drayton trails. Apparently flowers twice per season, once in February and early March, with the fruits maturing in March and April, and again in May and June, with the fruits developing mostly in August and September. Known from Costa Rica and Panama. In Panama, known only from tropical moist and premontane wet forests in the Canal Zone on the Atlantic slope; no doubt occurring on the Atlantic slope of western Panama also.