Tree, to 10 m tall; young stems, petioles, rachises, veins of blades below, and inflorescence branches sparsely hirsute. Leaves pinnate, imparipinnate or paripinnate, to 30 (45) cm long; petioles 3-5 (9) cm long, pulvinate at base, the pulvinus +/- flat above; leaflets (9)13-21, opposite or subopposite near apex, sometimes becoming alternate toward base, +/- elliptic, long-acuminate, acute to rounded and slightly inequilateral at base, 5-9 (14) cm long, 1.5-3 (4.4) cm wide, sparsely ciliate. Panicles 3-15 (18) cm long, solitary or paired (when paired, 1 usually very short) in upper axils; lateral branches short; peduncles and basal part of axis often +/- flattened; pedicels to 1 mm long, with minute narrowly acute bracts at base; flowers 5-parted, 2-3 mm long; calyx saucer-shaped, the lobes short, acute; petals oblong, acute at apex, white, densely papillate (especially on margins); stamens 10, free except near base, to 2.3 mm long, included; filaments flattened, contiguous, forming a loose staminal tube, stiff-villous on margins and within above middle, the lateral margins weakly prolonged at apex; anthers ca 0.7 mm long, narrowly ovoid, introrsely dehiscent, sparsely villous all over; ovary orange, depressed, ca 1.2 mm wide, about half as high, glabrous to densely pubescent; style thick, ca 2.3 mm long, swollen slightly below apex, villous, especially near base; stigma simple, depressed; nectar stored within stamens at base of ovary. Capsules subglobose, obtuse and apiculate at apex, ca 1 cm long, brown to violet-purple at maturity, densely and minutely papillate-puberulent and sparsely hirtellous at least when young, 3-valved, the open capsule bowl-shaped with a prominent narrow midrib inside; seeds (2) 3 (4), ovoid, ca 6 mm long, covered with a fleshy orange aril. Croat 15099. Apparently rare; collected on the west edge of Bat Cove. Flowers mostly from May to July. The fruits mature during the dry season of the following year, at least in some cases while the trees are bare. Smith (1965) in the Flora of Panama stated that the inflorescences are racemose. He uses this character in the key to separate this species from T. tomentosa H.B.K. However, most of the Panamanian materials I have seen have paniculate inflorescences. Reported to be dioecious (Bawa & Opler, 1975). Mexico to Brazil; West Indies. In Panama, reported by Smith (1965) to be a species of fence rows, forest margins, and forests; known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Chiriqui, Panama, and Darien.