R. & P., Syst. Veg. 257. 1798 Dioecious shrub or tree, to ca 6 (20) m tall; younger stems, petioles, and peduncles with coarse, erect or appressed trichomes; stems eventually glabrate or puberulent; sap whitish, watery, becoming clear with white clots. Leaves alternate; petioles 5-7 (15) mm long; stipules fully amplexicaul, small; blades variable, mostly oblanceolate-elliptic, subcaudate-acuminate at apex, remotely serrate-undulate toward apex, cuneate at base, mostly 10-25 cm long, 2.5-9 cm wide, often somewhat falcate, glabrate and weakly asperous above, asperous below with short inconspicuous trichomes. Staminate flowers numerous, in involucrate discoid heads to ca 1 cm diam; perianth green, apiculate in bud, 4-lobed, the lobes acuminate, scabrid outside; stamens 4, inflexed in bud, springing out violently upon the bursting open of the thin perianth lobes, becoming strongly reflexed; pollen white, powdery. Pistillate inflorescences small, axillary, solitary or clustered, ovoid, consisting of a solitary flower surrounded by involucrate bracts, the bracts orange within at maturity, opening broadly to expose fruit; ovary superior; ovule and style pubescent at apex; stigmas with 2 filiform exserted lobes. Fruits sweet, orange, false (?) drupes ca 8 mm diam; seed rounded, ca 5 mm diam. Croat 5073, 10168. Common in both the young and the old forests. Flowers and fruits throughout the year. The flowers are visited by small bees. Costa Rica through the Andes to Bolivia. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, Colón, Chiriqui, Los Santos, Panama, and Darién. known also from premontane wet forest in Coclé and Panama.