Tree, to 12 (20) m tall, originally epiphytic, usually rather short and forming a solid trunk in exposed areas (such as along the shore); bark grayish; twigs minutely puberulent, smooth except for small lenticels; sap copious, watery. Leaves glabrous; petioles slender, 5-13 cm long; stipules narrowly triangular, l-3 cm long, glabrous, deciduous; blades ovate, elliptic, oblong, or rarely obovate, acuminate, mostly obtuse to rounded or subcordate at base, 10-25 cm long, 4-9 cm wide, more or less coriaceous, folded along midrib, the veins in 4-12 pairs. Figs +/- globose, 8-14 mm diam at maturity, borne in pairs (one frequently falling) in dense clusters among and below leaves, green with many pale green dots or becoming violet-red; peduncles 4-15 mm long, glabrous; ostioles flat; basal bracts 2, usually bluntly rounded, 2-3 mm long. Croat 7891. Occasionally visited by bats. Florida to Paraguay; West Indies. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone and Panama (San Jose Island) and from premontane dry forest in Colé (Santa Clara Beach).