Stout vine, glabrous; stems to at least 5 mm diam, striate. Stipules somewhat persistent, narrowly linear, 10-15 mm long; petioles 3-10 cm long, biglandular near apex; blades broadly ovate-cordate, rounded and mucronulate to apiculate at apex, 5-10 cm long, 6-11 cm wide, the basal sinus ca 3 cm deep, the lower surface glaucous, eglandular, the margins subentire to serrulate; palmate veins 7-9; juvenile leaves trilobate. Flowers solitary in leaf axils, ca 8 cm diam; peduncles 6-9 cm long (to 10 cm long when in fruit), jointed directly beneath flowers, the bracts 3, fused, 2.5-5 cm long, the lobes broadly ovate, white, purple-tinged; hypanthium ca 2 cm deep; sepals 5, ovate-lanceolate, 3.5-4 cm long, appendaged, greenish-white, sometimes tinged with violet; petals 5, oblong-lanceolate, ca 3.5 cm long, purple, the entire perianth strongly reflexed when open; corona filaments in 2 series, the inner erect, incurved at apex, to 2.5 cm long, banded with purple and white, the outer ca 1 cm long; staminal filaments fused except at apex; anthers shedding pollen after beginning of fruit development; operculum 2 mm high, denticulate; gynophore ca 2 cm long in flower; ovary ovoid; styles 3; stigmas broad, yellow. Berries broadly oblong to ovoid, at least 4-5 cm long and 3.5 cm broad, green, weakly pruinose, densely speckled with light green spots, the exocarp thick, white inside; seeds many, stalked, orbicular-ovate, ca 3 mm long, punctate. Shattuck 692, Wetmore & Abbe 147. Uncommon along the shore. Flowers mostly from October to March, sometimes from August. The fruits mature from January to March. Native to Panama and Colombia; cultivated elsewhere. In Panama, known principally from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, all along the Atlantic slope, and in Panama and Darien; known also from premontane wet forest in Chiriqui and Panama and from tropical wet forest in Colón and Panama. See Fig. 408.