Shrub, 2-3 m tall, densely soft-pubescent, the trichomes on petals and inner flower parts simple, +/- stiff, those on stems, petioles, and axes of inflorescences appressed-ascending. Leaf pairs often unequal; petioles 5-20 mm long; blades elliptic, acuminate at apex, acute to attenuate at base, 7-28 cm long, 3.5-12 cm wide, pliveined, ciliate, sparsely pubescent on upper surface, softly pubescent to subsericeous on lower surface, the pubescence much denser on veins especially above, the veins 5-7; juveniles with the blades purplish below. Panicles narrow, branched or unbranched, 5-15 cm long, usually less than 3 cm wide, the main axis reddish; flowers 5-parted, sessile; hypanthium 2.5-4 mm long, appressed-pubescent; petals strongly reflexed at anthesis, white, rounded at apex; stamens isomorphic; anthers tapered toward apex, the connective inconspicuously prolonged at base; ovary pubescent; style ca 6 mm long; stigma truncate. Berries depressed-globose, to 12 mm wide, pale orange-red becoming gray-blue to purple at maturity, fleshy, densely pubescent; seeds brown, +/- sticky, narrowly wedge-shaped, ca 0.7 mm long. Croat 12872. Occasional in the older forest; uncommon elsewhere. Flowers and fruits throughout the year. Southern Mexico to Bolivia. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, Veraguas, and Darien, from premontane wet forest in Colón, Chiriqui, and Panama, from tropical wet forest in Veraguas (Atlantic slope), Colón, and Darien, and from premontane rain forest in Darien.