Copá Functionally unisexual tree, usually less than 12 m tall (to 40 m elsewhere), +/- stilt-rooted at base, glabrous; outer bark thin, smooth, the leaf scars on younger trees ca 5 cm broad; inner bark pinkish; sap with sweet strong odor typical of family. Leaves pinnate; petioles 6-13 cm long, flattened on upper surface, swollen at base; petiolules 1-4 (8) cm long, swollen at both ends; leaflets 3-7 (9), mostly ovate-lanceolate to oblong, bluntly short-acuminate, obtuse to rounded at base, 13-35 cm long, 6-9 (16) cm wide, coriaceous. Inflorescences paniculate (rarely racemose), axillary or terminal, sometimes cauliflorous, mostly to 15 cm long; flowers greenish-white to greenish-yellow, 4 (5)-parted, with a strong, sweet aroma; pedicels to ca 4 mm long; calyx +/- truncate or shallowly lobed, very short; petals 3 mm long, valvate, +/- spreading at anthesis, papllose-puberulent on margins, the apex acute; stamens 8 (10), 2 mm long; filaments broadened below, recessed somewhat in fleshy yellowish disk; pistil conical, short; stigma simple, almost sessile, persistent in fruit. Capsules drupaceous, red at maturity, often in a large congested cluster, ellipsoid to ovoid, apiculate, shortly stipitate, to 2.8 cm long, the valves 2 or 4, unequal, the smaller falling free at maturity; pyrene 1(4), to ca 1.5 cm long, bearing 1 or 2 seeds, greenish, covered with a thick, white, fleshy, sweet mesocarp ca 3 mm thick, attached to larger valve near apex, becoming pendent, displayed against red inner valve surface. Croat 4834, 11110. Though flowers are functionally unisexual, there are few conspicuous differences between staminate and pistillate flowers or inflorescences. Known only from Panama, probably extending into both Costa Rica and Colombia. In Panama, known only on the Atlantic slope from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, and San Blas, from tropical wet forest in Colón and Coclé, and from premontane wet forest in the Canal Zone and Colón.