Algodoncito Sprawling suffrutex or shrub, to 4 m tall; stems and petioles sparsely stellate-pubescent (often in lines); stems, petioles, pedicels, and major veins with retrorse pustular-based prickles. Stipules linear-subulate; petioles 2-10.5 cm long; blades ovate in outline, lobed mostly to beyond middle, deeply cordate at base, 9-16 cm long, sparsely pubescent with both simple and stellate trichomes, the lobes 3-5, mostly narrowly ovate, acuminate, the margins dentate-serrate. Flowers solitary in upper axils; pedicels 2-7 cm long; epicalyx bracteoles 9-13, linear, unequally bifurcate at apex, 1.5-2.5 cm long, pubescent; calyx 1-2 cm long, lobed to about middle, pubescent, accrescent in fruit, the lobes acuminate, 3-veined, the midvein glandular, the gland about midway, secreting sweet nectar; petals 5, obovate, 5-7 (9) cm long, rounded at apex, magenta or rose; staminal tube dark violet, sparsely covered with anthers throughout, half to fully as long as corolla; style branches 5, held above staminal tube; stigmas hirtellous. Capsules ca 2 cm long, slightly shorter than accrescent calyx, broadly ovoid, mucronulate, sericeous; seeds many, irregular, 3-4 mm long, minutely papillate. Croat 4254. Mexico to the Guianas and Brazil; West Indies. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone and Panama and perhaps more abundantly from tropical wet forest in Colón,