Sastra, Cero, Chaparrón Glabrous, polygamodioecious tree, to 10 (30) m tall; trunk usually less than 15 cm dbh, with sparse yellow sap; outer bark thin; inner bark reddish; younger parts with white or pale yellowish sap. Petioles 1-2.5 cm long, somewhat swollen at base with a short appendage on the inner side above the articulation; blades narrowly elliptic, acute to weakly acuminate, +/- attenuate at base, 12-20 (25) cm long, 4-7 (10) cm wide, thick; lateral veins and collecting vein scarcely visible, not prominulous above when dry. Fascicles dense, globular, sessile, ca 4 cm wide, usually borne on leafless stems; pedicels 7-20 mm. long; flowers small, aromatic, numerous; sepals 2, concave, rounded at apex, +/- united at base; petals 4, ovate to orbicular-, rounded at apex, white, 5-7 mm. long, strongly reflexed at anthesis; staminate flowers with the stamens free, 16-30 (usually nearer 16), ca 3 mm. long, erect to somewhat spreading, borne around a fleshy disk; anthers minute, about as broad as long, the thecae mostly directed upward; pistillode broad, cushion-shaped; bisexual flowers with the stamens 6-12, ca 2 mm long, alternating with the lobes of a fleshy disk; ovary ovoid, ca 2.7 mm long; style very short; stigma discoid, ca three-fourths as broad as ovary. Fruits subglobular to ovoid, 2-2.8 cm long, to 2.3 cm wide, glabrous, at first green and densely whitish-punctate, becoming pale yellow to orange at maturity; exocarp thin, ca 2 mm thick, leathery; mesocarp thick, fleshy, white, tasty, sticking to seeds; seeds 1 or 2, oblong, to 2 cm. long and 1 cm wide, with yellow latex, covered with a thin, brown, +/- fibrous layer. Croat 13921,14454. Frequent in the forest. Flowers from January to April, especially in February and March (rarely earlier or later elsewhere in Panama). The fruits mature principally from May to July, but some persist much later into the rainy season. Mexico, Panama, and Peru. In Panama, usually lower than 900 m elevation; known principally from wetter parts of tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui, Veraguas, Los Santos, Panama, and Darién but also from premontane wet and tropical wet forests in Los Santos (Loma Prieta and along the Serrania de Cañazas).