Brazilian rose, Poro-poro Tree, 3-12 m tall, mostly to 10 cm dbh (sometimes to 70 cm dbh elsewhere); wood very soft; branches few; branchlets densely pubescent, becoming sparsely so in age. Stipules subulate, small, caducous; petioles to 30 cm long; blades usually palmately 5-lobed, cordate at base, mostly 12-25 cm wide, glabrous above, puberulent below, the lobes acute to acuminate, the margins usually crenate. Flowers yellow, pedicellate, the inflorescence branches recurved near apex; sepals 4 or 5, unequal, the 2 outer sepals ovate to oblong-obovate, usually rounded at apex, 12-18 mm long, 7-9 mm wide, the 3 inner sepals mostly obovate to subrotund, rounded at apex, 20-22 mm long, 16-20 mm wide; petals 4 or 5, obovate, 5-6 cm long, often emarginate at apex; stamens yellow, numerous, the outer ones longer, curved inward near apex; anthers slender, somewhat curved; pollen dehiscing from a single apical pore; style longer than stamens, at first +/- erect, later recurved and about equaling height of anthers, the apical part somewhat hooked; stigma simple. Capsules +/- obovoid, 5-valved, to 8 cm long; seeds reniform, 4-5 mm long, bearing many cottonlike fibers. Croat 7690. Probably once common, now rare; known only from a few places along the shore, especially the north edge of Orchid Island. Flowers throughout the dry season (December to April). The fruits mature in late dry and early rainy seasons (March to July). Leaves fall throughout most of the dry season. The species can be recognized at once by the large yellow flower with numerous stamens and by the palmately lobed leaf. A large pollinator, such as a bat, bird, or large bee, would be the most effective for this large flower with protruding style. Primary pollinators in Costa Rica are large bees, principally in the families Anthophoridae and Xylocopidae (G. Frankie, pers. comm.). Capsules open broadly, but the wind-dispersed seeds leave only a few at a time, the rest being held by the outer capsule valves, which curve sharply inward and hold the cottony mass of seeds. Mexico to northern South America. In Panama, a characteristic component of tropical dry forest (Holdridge & Budowski, 1956) and a common invader (Holdridge, 1970); known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Herrera, Panama, and Darién, from premontane moist forest in the Canal Zone, Los Santos, and Coclé, and from tropical wet forest in Panama (Cerro Campana); cultivated in San Blas (Duke, 1968).