Portorrico, Lengua de buey Acaulescent, monoecious herb, to 3.5 m tall. Petioles 1.5-2 m or more long; blades to 1.6 m long, almost completely bisected, occasionally trifid, each segment 15-24 cm wide, the base of each lobe oblique, the midrib near upper edge at base, becoming centered by apex. Peduncles 40-90 cm long; spathes 5-7, broadly ovate, 15-25 cm long, the inner cream-colored or pinkish, the outer +/- foliaceous; spikes 5-11 cm long when flowering, l.5-2.5 cm broad, with staminate and pistillate flowers in 10-15 separate alternating whorls, the flowers of each whorl connate; staminate flowers naked; pistillate flowers enclosed by two rims of fleshy tissue, these becoming much enlarged; fruiting syncarps to 6 cm diam, +/- pendent. Each segment of syncarp falling off individually, with many seeds in a fleshy matrix; seeds to 1.5 mm long and 1 mm wide. Croat 5386, 6016. Occasional, inhabiting chiefly stream banks and the lakeshore, though numerous juvenile plants are found within the forest away from any streams. Flowers mostly April and May, but also sometimes in June and perhaps later as well. The fruits mature throughout the rainy season, mostly by October. The soft fleshy segments of the syncarp float and are dispersed in part by water currents and in part by animals or birds. Guatemala to Peru and Brazil; Lesser Antilles. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, San Blas, Chiriqui, Panama, and Darien and from tropical wet forest in Panama (beyond Cerro Jefe) and Colon.