Tree of conspicuously strangling habit, to 30 m tall, glabrous except the stipules and floral bracts densely pubescent and the young stems, petioles, and leaf blades below or midribs above sometimes with long trichomes; bark often reddish-brown; sap milky. Petioles 1-4 cm long; stipules lanceolate, 1.5-3 cm long, densely pubescent (possibly glabrate in age), subpersistent; blades obovate or less frequently elliptic, rounded or obtuse at apex (acuminate on juveniles), rounded to subcordate at base, 8-20 (32) cm long, 4.5-11(13) cm wide, the veins in 6-10 pairs, usually 3 (5)-veined at base. Figs paired, depressed-globose,12-14 mm diam, borne among leaves, glabrous, sessile, yellowish-green to pale yellow becoming reddish with darker red spots, finally entirely red at maturity; basal bracts 2, usually with long appressed trichomes, to 1 cm long. Croat 9505. Common in the forest, occasional along the shoreline; a large tree occurs at Zetek Trail 310. The species is one of the most well-developed stranglers on the island. The fruits are eaten by birds. Ants often form permanent trails on the branches to patrol the figs against predators. Escaping female wasps jump downward soon after emerging from the ostiole of the fig to prevent being eaten by the ants (W. Ramirez B., pers. comm.). Guatemala to Panama. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest on BCI and in Chiriqui (David) and from premontane wet forest in Chiriqui (Caldera). Reported from tropical dry forest in Costa Rica (Holdridge et al., 1971).