Shrub or small tree, 2-10 m tall; trunk to 12 cm dbh; branchlets puberulent when young, sometimes on one side only. Stipules minute, caducous; petioles 3-10 mm long, canaliculate; blades +/- oblong-elliptic, long-acuminate and downturned at apex, +/- acute to obtuse at base and sometimes inequilateral, mostly 2-14 cm long, 2.5-5 cm wide, glabrous, conspicuously pellucid-punctate, the margins entire to obscurely toothed, undulate. Flowers greenish-white or purple, 2-3 mm long, in dense axillary clusters; pedicels to 5 mm long, articulate near middle, the basal part persisting; calyx lobes 5, broadly ovate, divided to near base; corolla lacking; stamens 10; filaments united to calyx tube, unequal, the longer ones opposite calyx lobes; anthers broader than long, of 2 lengths, held horizontal, dehiscing downward; staminodia broad, densely pubescent, alternating with and shorter than stamens; ovary +/- glabrous; style at level between long and short anthers; stigmas 3, globular, +/- sessile. Capsules +/- globose, 3-4 mm long, apiculate, pubescent at apex, surrounded by persistent calyx, reddish or purple at maturity, 3-valved; seeds 2-6, ca 2 mm long, with an incomplete red aril. Croat 4977, 6442. Frequent in the forest, especially the young forest, and along the shore. Flowers principally from August to December with sporadic flowering in the dry season. The fruits mature in about 1 month. Throughout tropical America. In Panama, known principally from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, all along the Atlantic slope, and in Chiriqui, Veraguas, Coclé, Panama, and Darien; known also from premontane wet forest in Chiriqui and Panama.