Coralillo, Flor de indio, Harino, Jarino Shrub or tree, to 7 (12) m tall; branchlets, leaf axes, and inflorescences ferruginous-tomentulose; branchlets lenticellate. Leaves pinnate, usually with 3-5 pairs of pinnae; petioles very short; stipules acicular, caducous; rachis to 15 cm long with small gland at each node; leaflets variable, oblong to broadly elliptic, rounded to short-acuminate, rounded to obtuse at base, 5-13 cm long, 3.5-10 cm wide, weakly pubescent to glabrous above except on midrib, sparsely pubescent below, more densely on midrib. Flowers white, sessile, in globular, pedunculate, subterminal heads ca 2 cm wide; peduncles 1-2 cm long, ferruginous-tomentose; floral bracts linear, to 4 mm long, giving the head a burrlike appearance before anthesis. calyx 1-2 mm long, shallowly lobed, pubescent at apex of lobes; corolla 6-8 mm long, the lobes ca 1 mm long, pubescent at apex. Legumes linear-moniliform, curled, to 15 cm long, reddish, splitting and twisting at maturity to expose black, ellipsoid or orbicular seeds ca 7-10 mm long. Croat 5355, 5925. Common along the shore on the north side of the island. Seedlings have been seen in the forest at Wheeler Trail 1900. Flowers mostly in the dry season (January to June). The fruits mature mostly in August and September (less often as early as February or as late as December). Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Colón, San Blas, Los Santos, Herrera, Panama, and Darien, from premontane moist forest in the Canal Zone, from premontane wet forest in Colón, Coclé, and Darien, and from premontane rain forest in Panama (summit of Cerro Jefe).