Dioecious shrub or small tree, to 5 (7) m tall, growing as individuals or in open colonies; trunk to 5 cm diam with pronounced leaf scars, usually with adventitious roots at base (rarely higher on trunk). Leaves ca 2.5 m long, glabrous; petioles 40-50 cm long, canaliculate at base, rounded, with cream-colored band on lower surface extending along rachis to tip of blade; blades mostly less than 2 m long; leaflets regular, ca 17 pairs, 40-60 cm long, shortest at both ends of blade, 5-9.8 cm wide, abruptly tapered toward both ends, falcate at distal end; costae several, some prominently raised on upper surface; juvenile leaves entire. Inflorescences 1-3 per plant, in various stages of development, erect until maturity of fruit; spathes to ca 40 cm long, thin, narrow, long-acuminate, soon weathering; spadix branched once, densely flowered, white; rachillae 8-20, strongly divaricate, mostly less than 18 cm long, becoming orange and prominently pitted in fruit; staminate flowers crowded, ca 2 mm long; petals and sepals 3 each, +/- equal, ovate; stamens 6, slightly longer than petals; anthers held perpendicular to filament, dehiscing upward; pistillodes about as long as filaments; pistillate flowers similar to staminate flowers but somewhat larger, thicker, and much less crowded, the pistils about as long as petals; stigmas prominent. Fruits oblong, 14-20 mm long, usually light green and shiny but turning black at maturity; exocarp thin; mesocarp fleshy and edible but bitter prior to maturity; seed 1. Croat 6504, 6506. Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in Bocas del Toro, San Blas, both slopes of the Canal Zone, Panama, and Darien; known also from premontane wet forest in Panama and Darien.