Perennial herb, 30-80 cm tall; rhizome creeping then erect, weakly rooted. Leaves linear, equitant, 20-50 cm long, overlapping in two ranks, the lateral margins free only near base, fused toward apex, minutely serrulate near apex. Panicles 7-35 cm long, 3-16 cm wide, the branches few to many, circinately coiled in bud, held +/- horizontal at maturity, the flowers on upper side; flowers white, distinctly pedicellate; tepals 6, narrowly ovate, 4-9 mm long, spreading at anthesis, long-persistent; stamens 3, +/- erect; filaments flattened, ca 2 mm long; ovary globose; style simple, ca 4 mm long, slightly longer than ovary, becoming +/- curved to one side. Berries dull red at maturity, ca 5 mm long; seeds numerous, red, +/- rounded, irregularly dented, densely papillate, less than 1 mm diam. Croat 11785. Mexico to Bolivia and Brazil; introduced into the West Indies. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in